A Letter from the Editor

By Jessica Nitschke

It is my great honor to have been selected as the new Editor of The Ancient Near East Today. I officially took over the reins in January, and I owe a debt of gratitude to Alex Joffe, the founder of ANE Today and my predecessor, for his abundant support in ensuring a smooth transition (and if you have not yet read Alex’s farewell and retrospective, I encourage you to do so).

I took on this position because of my admiration for ANE Today’s multiple qualities: its ability to translate nuanced scholarship to speak to a broad audience, its interdisciplinary scope, and the open-access nature of the platform. Together these features make ANE Today unique in both academic and mass media. It is clear to me that there is a great need for high-quality and insightful information about the ancient Near East in a format that is freely available and intellectually accessible to a broad readership. I have had the chance to speak with many in the extended ASOR community who have indicated that they share my appreciation for ANE Today and stressed the importance of its continuing success. Having taken on editorial responsibility, it is now my job to help ANE Today continue to evolve and grow its readership in line with ASOR’s mission and strategic plan.

My priority is to ensure that the content of ANE Today continues to achieve its unique balance of compelling research and ideas, approachability, and accessibility. At the same time, my goal is to grow the publication’s reach and engagement by improving its user experience, increasing the scope of its content, and crafting a more strategic social media presence.

So what lies in the future? We have already begun developing and implementing plans to improve the format, organization, and user experience of the website and weekly newsletter, including new features such as a searchable archive and a comment function on articles. In terms of content, the feature article will remain a place where researchers can communicate their latest ideas and findings to a general audience. At the same time, we are considering ways to widen the coverage. One initiative we have implemented is engaging with museum curators to discuss their exhibitions, as museums stand at the forefront of public engagement with the ancient world.  As we seek to promote engagement with ANE Today among students, we intend to introduce articles oriented toward topics covered in undergraduate courses. We are also coordinating more closely with other ASOR outreach programs, such as the Cultural Heritage Initiatives and the Friends of ASOR webinars, to draw attention to these activities. And we are considering how we can improve and enhance the news links section of the newsletter, as the data shows that after the feature article, this is the most popular section of our weekly issues.

To assist in steering ANE Today’s evolution and growth, I am expanding the size and role of the Editorial and Advisory Committee. But I also need your help. In the near future, we will be circulating a reader survey so we can get a better sense of who our current subscriber base is, how you engage with the weekly digital issues, what your interests are, and what you like most/least about the current publication. We would be very grateful if you took the time to fill this out so that we can do our best to improve the publication.

I look forward to the work ahead. Despite the many challenges facing the field of ancient studies, research into the languages, history, and culture of the ancient Near East and adjacent lands is thriving like never before. New technologies have transformed our ability to extract and analyze data from the fragmentary remains of the past, opening up avenues of inquiry that were once closed to us. The digital revolution has made discourse and data more accessible to a wider group of people; this plus the move towards decolonization of archaeological and heritage practice means we have a greater number and variety of insights and perspectives. And while the drive towards specialization in academia has its downsides, the clear upside is increased focus on neglected and underappreciated areas of study.

I firmly believe there is a strong audience for what The Ancient Near East Today has to offer. From movies to art to gaming, the ancient world has never been more prominent in popular culture, and the desire to experience the distant past first-hand continues to be a driver in global tourism (for good or for bad). Archaeology and cultural heritage are hot topics in the media, and the increasing interest in science journalism shows that the general public is hungry for information about what researchers are discovering about the world, both past and present. It is this public interest that ANE Today must encourage and cultivate in order to help ensure that professionalized study of the ancient world can continue into the future.

Jessica Nitschke is Editor of The Ancient Near East Today. She can be reached at anetoday@asor.org. On social media, she is @jess_nitschke on Twitter and @jessica.nitschke.50 on Facebook.