User:Robert Kluijver

Introduction
Hi, my name is Robert Kluijver. I teach a course called Contemporary Art and Geopolitics in the Arab World at the Paris School of International Affairs which is the International Master programme of Sciences Po, the French Institute for Political Studies (Institut d'Etudes Politiques].

Besides, I am a curator of contemporary art specializing in the Middle East, in particular the Arabian Peninsula. I have organized exhibitions (commercial but mostly non-commercial) in The Hague, Amsterdam and Jeddah and was curatorial consultant for the first Indian Biennial, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala. I have written quite a few articles and some books, the latest being "Contemporary Art in the Gulf". That was included on the Gulf Art Guide website which I created, together with my colleague Neil van der Linden. Check the links below.

Finally, I also specialize in post-conflict cultural reconstruction. I have worked in this field in Afghanistan (for many years), Tajikistan, Iraq and Yemen, and am familiar with the situation in a few other countries of the Middle East/Central & South Asian region.

Experience with Wikipedia
I have previously contributed an article to Wikipedia: Rabatak inscription. I remembered at that time it was not difficult, and I was very proud to see this published on Wikipedia, and amazed at the high-quality edits and modifications made to it subsequently.

Current Objective
I have previously uploaded the papers of my students on my own website.1 Now I want my students to contribute to Wikipedia community with encyclopedic articles (not essays) about contemporary art in the Arab world, because there is so little on Wikipedia about the subject. This project is cleared with the PSIA faculty but they rather not attach their name to it until the results appear to be positive. I hope we can then develop a larger program of contributions to Wikipedia.

The course page is Education Program:Independent Courses/Contemporary Art and Geopolitics in the Arab World (Spring 2013)

Questions
Now I am still at the beginning of a steep learning curve so I look forward to any comments of the Wikipedia user community.