Board Nominations Committee Seeks Names to Consider For Nomination to the ASOR Board of Trustees

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BOARD NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE SEEKS NAMES TO CONSIDER FOR NOMINATION TO THE ASOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]ASOR’s Board Nominations Committee is seeking names of people who are willing to be considered for nomination to the ASOR Board of Trustees (Class of 2018). The committee seeks names of people who are willing to consider service as either Individual Trustees or as Institutional Representative Trustees. We anticipate two openings for three-year terms (2016-2018) in each category. Any full ASOR member may be considered for nomination as an Individual Trustee, while only institutional representatives of ASOR Member Schools may be considered for nomination as an Institutional Representative Trustee.

The ASOR Board of Trustees sets the direction for ASOR and provides oversight for our organization. We thus encourage you to consider serving on the board or to share names of people who you think would be a good fit for the Board. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year at their own expense, to participate thoughtfully in the goverance process, and to contribute financially to ASOR. At this stage, nominations may by made simply by sending the person’s name and email address to Britta Abeln in the ASOR office (asor@bu.edu). Questions about service on the ASOR board or about the selection process may be addressed to Larry Geraty (lgeraty@lasierra.edu), chair of the nominations committee. Self-nominations are encouraged. The ASOR office will contact everyone who is nominated to describe in greater detail the responsibilities and to make sure that the nominee is willing to have his or her name discussed by the Board Nominations Committee. After the Committee selects individuals for nomination, the election will take place by electronic ballot during September and October. ASOR is moving to online voting to ensure that more of our members are able to participate in this important process. The ASOR office will work with any person who is not able to complete an electronic ballot to make sure that everyone is included.

The Board Nominations Committee consists of Larry Geraty (chair), Rachel Hallote, and Ann-Marie Knoblauch. In order to receive full consideration by the committee, nominations must be submitted to asor@bu.edu by July 15, 2015.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684098866{margin-right: 5px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_wp_posts title=”BROWSE THE NEWS ARCHIVE” number=”4″][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684008271{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Allison Cuneo Joins ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiative Team

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ALLISON CUNEO JOINS ASOR’S CULTURAL HERITAGE INITIATIVE TEAM

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Allison Cuneo joined the full-time staff in June as Project Manager for ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives. She will be managing and providing logistical and research support for ASOR’s Syrian Heritage Initiative. Her email address is asorhert@bu.edu.

Allison is an archaeologist specializing in heritage management. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Archaeology at Boston University and her dissertation concerns the protection of cultural sites in Iraq. Her work revolves around the management of threatened cultural resources and involving local communities in archaeological research. She also has an MA in Archaeological Heritage Management from Boston University, which focused on the protection of cultural property during armed conflict. She came to BU via a Presidential Fellowship and is now instructing an undergraduate course titled “Great Discoveries in Archaeology” for the department. Prior to ASOR, Allison was the Program Manager for the Mosul University Archaeology Program, part of the Iraq University Linking Program (ULP) funded by the US Embassy to design and implement online courses and real-time video conferences with Mosul University and conduct cultural study programs in the US and in Iraq. She has ten years of archaeological fieldwork experience in Iraq, England, Spain, Greece, and Israel.

Allison is originally from South Jersey but has called Boston her home for seven years. She is an avid photographer and enjoys finding the hidden gems of her adopted city.[/vc_column_text][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cuneo1.jpg” image_width=”3888″ image_height=”2592″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cuneo2.jpg” image_width=”2048″ image_height=”1360″ crop=”false” hover=”false”][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684098866{margin-right: 5px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_wp_posts title=”BROWSE THE NEWS ARCHIVE” number=”4″][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684008271{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

An ASOR and AIA Statement Regarding H.R. 1493

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AN ASOR & AIA STATEMENT REGARDING H.R. 1493

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Recently, ASOR and the AIA received an open letter raising concerns about H.R. 1493, a bill designed “to protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural and other disasters, and for other purposes.” In particular, the letter raised concerns about an amendment added to the bill in the House of Representatives that allows the President to waive the import restrictions for Syrian cultural materials when the owner of the materials wishes to deposit them in the United States temporarily for purposes of safekeeping and preservation. This amendment is part of the bill that is now being considered in the Senate.

The specific concerns about the amendment raised in the open letter are two. First, the letter notes that matters of “ownership” (the “owner of the materials” designated in the amendment) can be very murky, especially in the case of Syria when it is in the midst of a civil war. Who, then, will make fair decisions about proper ownership, and how will those decisions be made? Likewise, who will make decisions about repatriation, and how: what if, say, the “owner” of some object is no longer to be found after the war is over? Second, the letter noted that the designated custodian in this country – a museum, say – might overreach and act as if it were “owner” of an object in its custody, by exhibiting, restoring, conserving or publishing the object, as opposed to granting, say, an owner state the right to control its cultural past.

It is certainly to the good to think through these sorts of cases and try to anticipate what some unintended consequences of the emended H. R. 1493 might be. ASOR and the AIA are convinced, however, that the language of the amendment is carefully drafted to prevent these kinds of worst-case scenarios. For example, while the authority for making decisions about an object’s ownership is assigned to the President, the probability is that this authority will be delegated to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the State Department, which has considerable experience in implementing the larger Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act of which the import restriction on Syrian cultural materials is a part.

In addition, it is important to note that in order for a waiver to be granted, the President must certify to Congress that granting the waiver “will not contribute to illegal trafficking in cultural property or financing of criminal or terrorist activities.” This means that no one will be granted a waiver unless s/he can prove that the object was not purchased or obtained in any way through looting, which in turn means that all undocumented archaeological objects are absolutely prohibited from being granted a waiver.

While it is true, moreover, that objects brought into the United States under the terms of this waiver might be studied or displayed by some museum that houses them, the housing of such objects in museums – rather than the default, which is a United States Government warehouse – seems to the good. It is also important to remember that it is the foreign owner who initiates the waiver request, and if s/he is not comfortable with a museum displaying, restoring, publishing, and/or conserving some item, the owner could choose not to request a waiver at all or could indicate his/her preferences about the item’s treatment.

Given all this, ASOR and the AIA continue to support H.R. 1493, and we strongly encourage the United States Senate to pass this legislation as quickly as possible so that we may do what we can to help protect Syria’s deeply precious yet highly endangered cultural heritage.

Dr. Susan Ackerman, President
American Schools of Oriental Research

Dr. Andrew Moore, President
Archaeological Institute of America[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684098866{margin-right: 5px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_wp_posts title=”BROWSE THE NEWS ARCHIVE” number=”4″][/vc_column][vc_column border_color=”rgba(170,170,170,0.01)” width=”1/6″ css=”.vc_custom_1496684008271{margin-right: 10px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;border-right-width: 2px !important;border-bottom-width: 2px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-right-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;border-bottom-color: rgba(227,228,228,0.75) !important;}”][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]