ASOR APPEAL LETTER

November 2, 2026

Dear Fellow ASOR Member,

It’s autumn at ASOR, and you, our members, are hard at work. Some of you have recently returned from the field, notebooks full of new finds waiting to be studied. Others are in a lecture hall or deep in a museum storeroom, finishing a manuscript or following the latest discoveries in Near Eastern Archaeology. And all of us belong to a community that has explored the Near East and wider Mediterranean together for more than 125 years. At a time when so much seems to divide us, that is something worth celebrating—and even though the autumn days are becoming shorter, our shared work and mission continue to grow.

ASOR has had quite a field season of its own. In 2026, we awarded more than $250,000 in fieldwork scholarships, research fellowships, project grants, cultural heritage awards, and membership and registration scholarships—a record fourth year at this level or higher. Our publications continue to share your research in print and online, and the Annual Meeting will again offer simultaneous hybrid sessions and workshops so members anywhere can participate. In Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Mali, and Libya, where conflict and natural disaster threaten cultural heritage, we completed projects alongside local communities and heritage professionals, creating pathways for preservation, discovery, connection, and healing. Amid decreasing international aid budgets, we signed agreements this fall for more than $650,000 in new projects across North Africa and the Middle East, funded by both federal and non-federal sources.

A new sustainability report from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) found ASOR growing in what has been a difficult decade for learned societies: since 2015, our membership has grown 41% and Annual Meeting attendance 30%, and the report rates our finances as strengthening. Your generosity is a large part of that. In this past year, 100% of trustees and almost 50% of our members made a gift. Thank you!

So, you might ask, why do we need a gift when ASOR is doing so well?

The honest answer is that growth, however welcome, brings new costs. ASOR is on solid ground financially, but keeping the Annual Meeting affordable means your registration fees cover only about 44 cents of every dollar it costs to run; across ACLS societies, the typical meeting recovers 99 cents. The $650,000 in new grants is fantastic, but those funds do not pay for the staff time it takes to research and write proposals, and we submit about three for every one that succeeds. Inflation has hit ASOR as it has your household, and we want salaries to keep pace so we can hold on to our skilled and dedicated staff. And with about 2,050 members—compared with a median of nearly 3,800 among societies with similar revenue—each gift counts for more.

Our goal is $200,000 for the Annual Fund. Unrestricted gifts give ASOR the flexibility to direct funds where they’re needed most: closing the gap in Annual Meeting costs, supporting students and early-career scholars, and responding quickly and effectively when heritage is at risk. If one part of our work is especially meaningful to you, you may also designate your gift to support it. Gifts of every size make a difference, and you can give online at www.asor.org/donate or by printing out this form.

This month, many of us will gather in Chicago to present new work, exchange ideas, and catch up with friends, as ASOR members have done for generations. In a year when conflicts in the regions we study have touched so many of us and the places we hold dear, we are grateful for the chance to come together. We hope to see you there.

With warm regards,

Andrew G. Vaughn, Executive Director

Kiersten Neumann, Trustee, Chair of Development