BIRI Digital Coordination and Strategy Project Digital Archivist
From October 2024, Jessica Holland has been the Lead Project Coordinator on the collaborative research project investigating the interconnected nature of the eight British International Research Institutes’ archives, and showcasing their research potential using Linked Open Data through two digital exhibitions. She was previously Strategic Projects Director at the Council for British Research in the Levant, and is looking forward to starting a PhD in 2025.
Jessica Holland is a digital archives specialist and a curator of contemporary art from South West Asia and North Africa. Jessica has worked at the British International Research Institutes since 2022, first as Strategic Projects Director of the Council for British Research in the Levant, where she secured a major British Library grant to digitise archives and rare books from Mandatory Palestine. From October 2024, Jessica has been based at the British School at Athens, coordinating a collaborative research project which illustrates the interconnected nature of the eight British International Research Institutes’ archives, using Linked Open Data, through two digital exhibitions. Previously, Jessica was the Archivist at the American Center of Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan, where she helped establish an award-winning cultural heritage photography archive. Jessica gained an MA with Distinction in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic from SOAS, University of London, where she wrote her dissertation on decolonial affordances within the digital archive. She received her BA in History of Art from the University of Cambridge.