2023 ASOR HONORS & AWARDS
Each year at the Annual Meeting, ASOR recognizes individuals who have performed outstanding service for the organization, those who have published exceptional academic work, and those who made significant contributions to our field. The following award recipients were honored at the 2023 Annual Meeting in Chicago and during the Members’ Meeting on November 17th. Awards were presented by Lynn Welton, Chair of ASOR’s Honors and Awards Committee.
Community Engagement and Public Outreach Award. This award recognizes individuals, teams, and organizations who have initiated outstanding educational, informational, or practical projects (including but not limited to classes, programs, exhibits, resources, events, and platforms) with the goal of making subjects and information about the ancient world accessible to wider (particularly non-academic) audiences.
Awarded to Marilyn Lundberg Melzian, Archive and Imaging Research Specialist, University of Southern California, for her work with the West Semitic Research Project and Inscriptifact.
The Charles U. Harris Service Award. This award is given in recognition of long-term and/or special service as an ASOR officer or Trustee (one award is given annually).
Awarded to Paul Flesher, Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming for his work with the ASOR Archives.
The P. E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award. This award honors an archaeologist who, during his/her/their career, has made outstanding contributions to ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean archaeology (one award is given annually).
Awarded to Bethany Walker, Professor Doctor, Universität Bonn.
ASOR Membership Service Award. This award recognizes individuals who have made special contributions on behalf of the ASOR membership, through committee, editorial, or office services.
Awarded to: Leigh Anne Lieberman (Open Context/Alexandria Archive Institute), Tiffany Earley-Spadoni (University of Central Florida), and Melissa Cradic (Open Context/Alexandria Archive Institute) for their design and implementation of the program, Digging Up Data, to aid ASOR members in the development of public-facing digital projects.
Awarded to Piotr Michalowski, George G. Cameron Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, for his 32 years of service as editor of the Journal of Cuneiform Studies, the Baghdad Committee, and ASOR.
Awarded to Beth Alpert Nakhai, Professor of Anthropology (Judaic Studies), University of Arizona, for her work in with ASOR’s Initiative on the Status of Women.
The G. Ernest Wright Award. This award is given to the editor/author of the most substantial volume(s) dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports and material culture from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean. This work must be the result of original research published within the past two years (one award is given annually).
Awarded to James Osborne, Associate Professor, University of Chicago, for The Syro-Anatolian City States: An Iron Age Culture, Oxford University Press.
The Frank Moore Cross Award. This award is presented to the author/editor of the most substantial volume(s) related to the history and/or religion of the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Primary consideration will be given to historical, epigraphic, textual, and comparative literary studies; or to works that advance and/or evaluate new methodological approaches to the literary record(s). This work must be the result of original research published during the past two years (one award is given annually).
Awarded to Megan Nutzman, Associate Professor, Old Dominion University for Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine, Edinburgh University Press.
The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award. This award is presented to the author/editor of a book published in the last two years that offers a new synthesis of archaeological or textual evidence intended to reach an audience of scholars as well as students and the broader public (one award is given annually).
Awarded to Amanda H. Podany, Professor Emeritus, California State Polytechnic University, for Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, Oxford University Press.
The Joy Ungerleider Poster Award. This award is conferred upon the author(s) of the poster presenting the results of a study about ancient Near Eastern societies in a clear, legible fashion using original graphic content. Subject matter may be based in archaeological sciences, history, anthropology, epigraphy, ethnography, heritage or other scholarly approaches to understanding ancient people in the areas covered by ASOR (one award is given annually).
Awarded to Efrat Nakash, Tel Aviv University, for the poster: “Copper circulation in the southern Levant during the EBIIIA: Tell el-Hesi as a case study.”
Student Paper Award. This award is conferred upon the author(s) of a paper presented during the Annual Meeting that conveys the results of a study about ancient Near Eastern and wider Mediterranean societies in a clear, understandable, and convincing fashion. The first author and presenter of the paper must be a registered student at the time of presentation in order to be eligible for consideration for this award.
Awarded to Morganne Ottobre, Johns Hopkins University, for the paper “Between Two Cultures: Translation and Multimodality in the Tell Fekheriyeh Inscription.”