The ASOR Coordinating Office

ASOR is structured to represent a constituent body of some 100 universities, colleges, and museums through the volunteer efforts of its Board of Trustees and major committees. The Administrative Office includes both general administrative as well as publications and membership services staff.

As funding has been available, ASOR has sponsored lecture tours for its membership, coordinating lectures by both foreign and American scholars. ASOR sponsors an annual professional meeting for the exchange of ideas and information. Among other services it has sponsored special committees like its Computer Committee, which has helped to coordinate and disseminate information to colleagues in the field on computer programs that speed the documentation of field projects, publication of these projects, programs developed to facilitate the study of ancient texts, etc. It has ongoing Committees on Archaeological Policy, Publications, and the Annual Meeting.

During the recent academic year, ASOR coordinated a fellowship program with its affiliated overseas centers that provided more than $450,000 for 40 participants. Scholars eligible for the fellowship program include undergraduates, seminarians, pre-doctoral students, and post doctoral scholars at junior and senior levels. The sources of support for these awards include such sources as the AIAR Endowment, the Nies and Barton bequests, the Dorot Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, USIA, Groot and Arabic-speaking immersion program fellowships are administered directly by ACOR in Amman. The purpose of ASOR's fellowship program is to provide opportunities for scholars and students to pursue their studies overseas, particularly at ASOR affiliated Institutes.

ASOR has provided an academic forum for discussion, exchange of information and presentation of the latest research in areas related to its focus areas in the Near East, by sponsoring an Annual Meeting. Each Annual Meeting provides the venue for individual presentations, seminars, and consultations. It also provides social opportunities for the participants and a major meeting for governing boards and committees. The wider Committee on Annual Meeting and Program sponsors educational outreach programs such as lectures and regional conferences.

One of ASOR's most important services is the coordination of field activities and setting standards for excavations and maintaining quality standards for field projects. This is the primary function of its Committee on Archaeological Policy (CAP). Scholars and academic institutions may apply for affiliation with ASOR through this Committee, and their efforts are advised, encouraged and critiqued through a peer review process. Annual tours of affiliated projects by the Chairman of the Committee help maintain the standards set by this Committee for ASOR.

ASOR supports a publication program of scientific journals like the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Journal of Cuneiform Studies, the Annual and several monograph series. It also produces a magazine designed to appeal at a popular level, Near Eastern Archaeology, and provides a newsletter for its members. These publications are world renowned for their excellent scholarship and for providing basic documentation for scholarly research.

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