About the Team

The Svoboda Diaries Project is an ongoing collaborative research and publication effort. Our work brings together researchers and practitioners of diverse disciplines, graduate students, and a dedicated cohort of talented undergraduate interns. Interns contribute to all aspects of the project, working in teams and taking on leadership positions. With the guidance and assistance of senior staff, they have engaged in diverse tasks requiring considerable attention to detail, including transcribing, creating our web presence and engaging in research. The accomplishments of our project would not have been possible without our undergraduates, some of whom have worked with us for multiple years. 

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Meet the Project Team

Explore project leadership, current students, and alumni.

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Supporters and Contributors

We would like to thank our many supporters and contributors including:

• The Svoboda family, who have allowed us to share their family story and for their cooperation at every stage of our work. We owe special thanks to Carole Boucherot Düster, Veronique Svoboda, Evelyne Boukoff, and Louis Svoboda.
• Nowf Abdul-Majid Allawi, who collaborated with us for many years on copyediting the English transcription and translation of the Arabic text in the diaries.
• Ali Wahab, who has generously shared his Iraq and Svoboda memorabilia including postcards produced by Alexander Svoboda during his adult life.
• John McKeown, who allowed us to use images of a painting by Alexander Sandor Svoboda.
• Kanan Makiya and his mother, the late Margaret Makiya, for sharing Mrs. Makiya’s transcriptions of the Joseph Mathia Svoboda Diaries and allowing us to digitize 16 of the Svoboda diaries which they rescued from Iraq.
• Jane Hathaway, an expert on the Ottoman Empire in Arab lands, who provided support whenever asked.

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Institutional support has included:

Funding support has included:

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There are many more people who deserve mention. Among them are our colleagues at the University of Washington and throughout the world who have offered advice and assistance when asked. This project depends on many contributions, so we are certain we have unintentionally omitted individuals who deeply deserve our thanks. We hope that they will accept that thanks and forgive us for unwillingly and unwittingly omitting the recognition they merit. Lastly, we dedicate this work to the memory of Prof. Henry Alexander Svoboda who is, in most ways, the father of this project, and Prof. Walter Andrews, who founded this project at University of Washington.

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Moving Forward to Shape the Future of Digital Humanities

Digital technologies and projects represent a shift from the solitary humanities scholarship, towards a project-based, collaborative environment utilizing cross-disciplinary expertise and resources. The nature of these networks of diverse scholars fosters the atmosphere of creativity and community that we find among the SDP interns.

We believe that project-based work will continue to reshape the humanities learning environment by offering students and faculty alike the opportunity to work productively in team environments. The experiences reported by our undergraduate interns after graduation strongly indicate that the skills acquired in this kind of environment are valued by employers in many workplaces.

Please reach out if you are interested in working with us!