MEET ASOR’S NEWEST BOARD-APPOINTED TRUSTEES
At our 2016 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the ASOR Board elected four people as Board-Appointed Trustees: Sheila Bishop (reappointed); Vivian Bull (reappointed); Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis (new trustee); and Jeanne Marie Teutonico (new trustee). Please see below for brief biographies, mission statements, and photos of these new trustees.
Sheila Bishop
Sheila Bishop is Founder and President of The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology. She has been a member of ASOR since 1994 and is beginning a third term as an ASOR Board Trustee. She has spent more than 20 years “digging,” most recently at Mount Zion and Jezreel, as well as providing funding and support for various excavations and archaeology-related projects.
Mission Statement
Following a 15 year career in the aviation industry, the demise of Eastern Airlines (a name barely remembered these days) brought unexpected life changes. I was soon to find myself sitting in a square at Sepphoris in the Galilee wondering, “What were you thinking?” But, I was bitten by the bug. Those were the days of dramatic cuts in funding for archaeology, elimination of graduate programs in archaeology, ASOR struggling to make its way into an uncertain future, and eventually William Dever’s article, “The DEATH of a Discipline,” which appeared in Biblical Archaeology Review in the fall of 1995. The future looked bleak, but even as a non-academic, non-specialist, I was determined to take up the mantle and do whatever I could do to help in any way. The success of archaeology in the Near East depends on ASOR and its historic mission to foster original research, archaeological excavations and explorations, and scholarship in related fields. Over the decades, it has been my privilege to participate as ASOR has weathered the storms, growing strong and even expanding into critical new areas such as Cultural Heritage Initiatives. My mission remains the same: Keep the projects going; get the students to the field; publish the finds; and, provide that information in an accessible format to the public. That mission begins and ends with ASOR and the support and guidance it provides for a strong future for archaeology in the Near East. “Go ASOR!”
Vivian Bull
Vivian Bull, President Emerita of Linfield College and Drew University, has been involved with ASOR for more than six decades. She met her husband Bob in Jerusalem during her initial trip to the Middle East, and the two were married in 1959. In a story that parallels that of many ASOR members, Vivian and Bob were a team who led digs, taught and inspired hundreds of students, and served ASOR and its affiliated schools with distinction in myriad ways for more than half a century. They spent over 25 seasons in the field. In addition to serving as a trustee, and later Board Chair of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, she has served on the ASOR Board and numerous ASOR Committees (including Development, Officers Nominations, Finance, and Strategic Planning). Dr. Bull also serves on several investment committees mostly related to the work of the United Methodist Church worldwide with a special interest in social responsibility investing.
Mission Statement
I have known and worked with ASOR for many years, seeing it grow from a small organization with somewhat limited resources, reaching out to support the interest and work of American higher education in the Middle East. The organization has grown with greater outreach and new opportunities as revealed by a much more diverse membership and series of activities. But there is always more to be done and as archaeologists are working in many different areas with a variety of specialties and concerns, both personal and geographic. ASOR has become more involved and more diversified in its outreach, often led by our younger members. It seems strange to have an academic economist on your board, but with having spent many summers and years both in the field and in the office of an institution involved in archaeology, I feel I can bring some perspectives of both organizational structures and the importance of resources to carry on some of the opportunities in ASOR’s future. I look forward to serving another term on the ASOR board.
Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis
Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis is Assistant Professor of the Liberal Studies Program at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York, where she is also Acting Executive Officer in M.A. in Liberal Studies and directs the M.A. in Liberal Studies concentration in the Archaeology of the Classical, Late Antique, and Islamic Worlds. She holds an AB from Cornell University in History, Archaeology, and Classics. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in Classical Archaeology from St. John’s College, University of Oxford. Her research focuses the material culture of the Roman, Late Antique and Islamic worlds, with particular emphasis on Roman gardens and architecture, the reception of ancient material culture in the United States, and Islamic Architecture. She has conducted research in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Italy. She is the author or co-author of articles published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Classical Receptions Journal, Levant, and The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. She is currently the co-director of the Upper Egypt Mosque Project, which is documenting conversion sites. This project has been supported by the Barakat Trust (UK). She has served on the governing board of the Archaeological Institute of America and on its executive committee. She also serves as Deputy Director of Manar al-Athar, an open-access digital humanities resource and photo-archive for the study of the Middle East and currently is the Chairperson of Smarthistory’s Governing Board and as the Contributing Editor for Art of the Islamic World.
Mission Statement
As a member of the Board of Trustees, I will support ASOR’s mission to promote and strengthen the study, education, and scholarship of the Near East and wider Mediterranean (NEWM), specially in the Roman, Late Antique and Islamic periods. The archaeology of later Islamic periods, especially that of the Mamluk and Ottoman eras, often lacks a clear academic home in American and Canadian academic institutions. With its work documenting the destruction of archaeological sites of all eras in Syria, ASOR is well positioned to be a natural leader in this area. I am also particularly interested in strengthening the ties between scholars who work on the Near East and those who work in the wider Mediterranean, so that the interconnectivity of these contiguous geographic regions can be better understood. Furthermore, as a digital humanist and the deputy director of the open-access Manar al-Athar photo archive, I am interesting in supporting ASOR’s goals in digital publishing and disseminating the scholarship of its members through open-access platforms, as outlined in the Strategic Plan. Outreach is not only vital to securing the next generation of academics to study the NEWM, but to educate and cultivate the next generation of non-academic supporters of ASOR’s important mission.
Jeanne Marie Teutonico
Jeanne Marie Teutonico is currently Associate Director of Programs at the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) in Los Angeles. An architectural conservator with over thirty years of experience in the conservation of buildings and sites, she was previously on the staff of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome and later of English Heritage in London. Ms. Teutonico holds an A.B. (Hons) in art history from Princeton University and a M.Sc. in historic preservation from Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is published widely and maintains research interests in the conservation and sustainable use of traditional building materials. She was a Resident of the American Academy in Rome in 2009, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Association for Preservation Technology.
Mission Statement
In its new strategic plan, ASOR has expressly stated a desire to participate energetically in international efforts to protect, conserve and present the cultural heritage of the Near East and wider Mediterranean. This is at the core of ASOR’s mission and an area of great interest to its membership. As a member of the Board of Trustees, I hope that my expertise and long experience in the realm of heritage conservation will assist ASOR in strengthening and expanding its activities to document, preserve and advocate for cultural heritage in the region. I am already an advisor to ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives and am especially interested in ways that the project can help to build capacity and bring greater coordination to complementary international activities. More broadly, I am also interested in engaging ASOR in discussions regarding how graduate education in both conservation and archaeology can foster more effective working relationships in the field.
