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FRIENDS OF ASOR FELLOWSHIP CHALLENGE 2020

ASOR needs the help of Friends of ASOR giving $10 or more each to earn a matching gift of $1,000.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous Friend of ASOR and donor, ASOR has received a pledge for a challenge matching gift of $1,000 to award to one student (for a total of $2,000) to excavate in the Near East this summer. We need Friends of ASOR to contribute gifts of $10, $25, $50, or $100 each to raise $1,000 to match the gift from the anonymous donor. As an extra incentive, the first 100 Friends who give $10 or more will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a complimentary Associate Membership. This 2020 membership includes print delivery and online access to all four issues of our most popular journal, Near Eastern Archaeology, as well as all the other benefits of membership at ASOR!

In 2017, the Friends of ASOR were able to raise enough funds to help Cecelia Chisdock participate in the excavation of the important Bronze Age Canaanite site of Tel Kabri in northern Israel. Here are some questions she answered about her experience. Cecelia’s journey clearly left a lasting impression because she is now enrolled in a graduate bioarchaeology program at the University of Notre Dame. ASOR caught up with Cecelia recently and she reflected on her past excavation experience saying,

“During the 2017 Tel Kabri excavation I not only gained archaeological training, I was also introduced to the entire world and many possibilities of Near Eastern archaeology. The field school introduced me to ways scientific techniques can be applied to archaeology and trips to other sites in Israel led me to an interest in the site of Megiddo. Both directed me towards the study of biological stress markers on teeth from Megiddo as part of my undergraduate thesis. This excavation and the research that was spurred by it then aided in my transition to Notre Dame’s Anthropology PhD program, where I am focusing in Near Eastern bioarchaeology. Without the support of the Friends of ASOR Fellowship I wouldn’t have been able to participate in any excavation, let alone one which opened so many avenues for research and my future.”[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”58048″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”58049″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][mk_divider][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]We are asking the Friends of ASOR to partner with us to give another student the opportunity to have a transformative experience like Cecelia’s three years ago. Please refer back often to this page as we will be tracking the progress of our drive here throughout the month. If 100 people give just $10, that is $1,000. Help us earn that challenge matching gift in just four weeks. We are counting on you.

We thank you for all the support you have given ASOR for however long you have been Friend, whether that is a month or years. As an organization, we are truly fortunate to have “friends” like you.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][mk_skill_meter title=”Progress Towards $1,000 FOA Challenge Gift” percent=”52″ title_color=”#777777″ progress_bar_color=”#99422f” track_bar_color=”#eeeeee”][mk_divider][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]

Please use the drop down menu on the “Designate my gift to” question to select “Friends of ASOR” as your gift designation. We have a month to reach our goal, so please make a gift today![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]Your donations enable ASOR to carry out our mission at a higher level and with greater impact. Even modest gifts add up to create significant support for ASOR, and the high level of donor participation from our members and friends help us attract gifts from foundations and major donors. Truly, every donor is important, and every gift is meaningful.[/vc_column_text][mk_divider][mk_table]

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NEW YEAR (2020) WELCOME MESSAGE FROM ASOR PRESIDENT SHARON HERBERT

My own history with ASOR goes back to the 1980s, when I sought CAP affiliation for the University of Michigan/University of Missouri excavations at the Hellenistic site of Tel Anafa in the Upper Galilee of Israel. It has continued to this day through work on other ASOR sponsored excavations, publications, and committees. Over the past 7 years I have served as Vice President; from this position I have observed first hand ASOR’s growing strength both on its traditional fronts and expansion into other arenas, most notably our cultural heritage initiatives.

I feel fortunate to come to the ASOR presidency at a time of its greatest strength to date. The credit for this goes predominantly to the efforts and vision of our past President, Susan Ackerman, and our continuing Executive Director, Andy Vaughn. They have been vigorously supported in their efforts by the commitment of our active Board of Trustees, hard work of our officers, member committees, and the enthusiasm of our members and friends.

Today, ASOR membership is at its highest level ever. Our two traditional public faces—the Annual Meeting and print publications, BASOR, NEA, and JCS—are flourishing. Our most recent annual meeting, in November 2019 in San Diego, was our 2nd largest ever. There were nearly 950 total registrants and over 500 papers delivered; San Diego was second only to our 2017 meeting in the perennial favorite, Boston. As we gear up for the November 2020 meeting, once again in Boston, we already foresee another blockbuster. The Program Committee has received an unprecedented number of workshop and sessions proposals. Likewise, our new partnership with the University of Chicago Press has widened the distribution of our journals, while our digital publications, News@ASOR and Ancient Near East Today, have extended our outreach to over 15,000 Friends of ASOR. We now sponsor 53 fieldwork projects and 25 publication projects over 10 countries.

We have been extraordinarily blessed on the fund-raising front in recent years. Thanks to generous donations our fellowship support for our members has grown, and we are able to fund collections research and conservation in addition to student participation on excavations. In less than two years, between 2018 and 2020, our membership raised over $1.6 million to enable us to purchase a permanent home, an office building in Alexandria, Virginia, which we have named the James F. Strange Center in honor of Jim Strange, a loyal and distinguished member of many years. We moved in last April. We share this space with two of our overseas research centers, ACOR and CAARI. From this stable and strategically placed location in the greater Washington D. C. area, we will be able to serve our membership more efficiently and to network more successfully with other archaeological societies and foundations headquartered there.

The key word for ASOR over the past decade has been expansion– in membership and scope of activities, and in areas and kinds of engagement. Expansion is not an end in itself, however. We have to work diligently to maintain and improve the quality of our programs and meet the needs of our membership. We have successfully taken up opportunities as we have seen them in cultural heritage and created others there, and in internationalization and outreach while supporting research projects of the highest quality. We stand where we do today thanks to carefully crafted and nimbly executed strategic plans and targeted initiatives that produced codes of professional conduct responsive to the concerns of our 21st century membership. All we know for certain about the future is that there will be change. Nowhere is this more certain than in the Near and Middle East, where ASOR’s activities are focused. Come what may in the three years of my term as President, I pledge to work together with all of you to keep ASOR true to its missions of initiating, encouraging, and supporting research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean, from the earliest times.

So, I close as I began: I am honored to have been chosen to lead such a vibrant and on-the-move organization, and I feel extremely fortunate to have taken office at a moment when ASOR is in a position of such incredible strength. It’s with great enthusiasm, then, that I look forward to the next three years and to ASOR’s continued success.[/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]Tweets by ASOResearch [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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ASOR REMEMBERS PHILIP KING

Philip J. King (1925–2019)

By Joseph A. Greene and Stuart Swiny

Professor Philip J. King, a former president of ASOR, died in Boston, Massachusetts, December 7, 2019, aged 94. He was eulogized by Boston College, where he taught from 1974 to 2001, and by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, where he was ordained a priest in 1949. These memorials were devoted to Phil’s priestly life and his academic formation and subsequent career. This remembrance focuses rather on his many years of service to ASOR—not only as president but in other ways besides—as well as his role as mentor, colleague and friend to those who knew him through those years. In this brief tribute we can touch only on the salient points and offer some personal recollections.

Phil’s formal involvement with ASOR began as a member of the Board of Trustees (1973–1990) during which time he became president of the Albright Institute (1972–1976) and then president of ASOR (1976–1982). Before that, he had spent a fellowship year in Jerusalem as an Albright Fellow at what was still the “American School in Jerusalem.” (It became the “Albright Institute of Archaeological Research,” AIAR, only in 1970.) His time in Jerusalem led Phil to a series of archaeological field projects: Tell es-Sa`idiyeh and Tell er-Rumeith in Jordan (1967), Tell Ta`anach in the West Bank (1968), then Gezer and Hesi in Israel (1968–1973). Nancy Lapp, whose late husband Paul directed the Rumeith excavations, first met him there. Much later she recalled using Phil’s handwritten field notebooks while preparing the final Rumeith report with Tristan Barako (Tell er-Rumeith: The Excavations of Paul W. Lapp, 1962 and 1967. ASOR Archaeological Reports 22 [2015]). In 1986 Phil returned to the renamed Albright Institute as an NEH Fellow. In 1989–1990 he was elected Life Member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge at the conclusion of a fellowship there.

His academic service was not confined to ASOR. He held the presidency of two other learned societies, the Catholic Biblical Association (1981–1982) and the Society for Biblical Literature (1988), and served on the Board of Governors of the American Research Center in Egypt, ARCE (1982–1985) and the Archaeological Institute of America, AIA (1983–1988).

But it was a ASOR president that Phil made his greatest mark. One instance is emblematic: as ASOR president Phil played a crucial role in the establishment of ASOR’s institute in Nicosia, the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, CAARI. He did much to ensure its financial survival during those difficult early years, at one stage even offering to lend CAARI some of his own money in order to keep it going. Indeed without Phil’s dogged pursuit of funding for CAARI in 1981 and 1982 it might well have closed down. Thanks to Phil’s effort, CAARI survived; and today it thrives as a major force in archaeological and historical research in the eastern Mediterranean.

Stepping down as ASOR president in 1982, Phil turned immediately to researching and writing a chronicle of ASOR first 80 years: American Archaeology in the Mideast: A History of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1983). This remains an indispensable account of ASOR’s founding and early years. Many aspects of it recur prominently in what could be called the Deuteronomistic version of ASOR’s history, An ASOR Mosaic: A Centennial History of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1900–2000 (ed. Seger, 2001).

It was Phil’s friendship with the late Leon Levy and with Shelby White, a friendship that developed during Phil’s ASOR presidency, that produced, ultimately, the lasting archaeological legacy of the Leon Expedition to Ashkelon, led by Larry Stager, the late Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel at Harvard. This friendship also resulted in 1997 in the creation of the Leon Levy-Shelby White Program for Archaeological Publications, of which Phil King was the founding director. Under Phil’s leadership and under his successor, Professor Christopher Hallett of the University of California, Berkeley, the White-Levy Program has supported the publication of scores of final dig reports, not just in the Near East but globally.

In 2006 the Leon Levy Foundation established with an endowment to Harvard the Philip J. King Professor “to support an outstanding scholar of the ancient world.” In 2010, Dr. Peter Der Manuelian, an Egyptologist, was appointed the first Philip J. King Professor thereby bringing back to Harvard the study of Egyptology after a hiatus of over 70 years.

This incomplete and too brief account can hardly to justice Philip King’s decades-long contributions to ASOR, but we hope we have called attention to the most important of those contributions.

Joseph A. Greene is Deputy Director and Curator of the Semitic Museum of Harvard University. Stuart Swiny directed the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia from 1980 to 1995 and then became Professor of Anthropology at the University at Albany–SUNY where he taught until his retirement in 2014.[/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]Tweets by ASOResearch [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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SUSAN ACKERMAN’S “PRESIDENT’S VALEDICTORY”

The 2019 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, was Susan Ackerman’s last meeting as presiding president. The following are remarks that Dr. Ackerman gave at the Members’ Meeting on November 22, 2019, where she was awarded the Richard J. Scheuer Medal for outstanding service to ASOR.

President’s Valedictory

by Susan Ackerman

My first message to the ASOR community was a letter from me, the then “new president,” published in our online e-newsletter News@ASOR in January 2014. In that letter, I wrote, as I thought a president should, about some recent ASOR accomplishments and especially about some recent fund-raising successes. But after spewing forth that requisite presidential verbiage, I went on to say that, “however notable the accomplishments and strengths of ASOR that I have outlined, our greatest strength is, as always, you: our members.”

I was not lying when I wrote that: indeed, one of my guiding principles as ASOR President has been always to tell the truth when speaking with the ASOR membership. But what I did not realize, when I wrote about our members in 2014, is how true my words were, as what I have come to understand profoundly over the course of the last six years is how deep-seated, far-reaching, and heartfelt our members’ dedication to ASOR truly is and the true extent of the ways that each and every one of you contributes — in so many different ways — to support and sustain our organization.

For example, ASOR members give untold hours of their time to ASOR. Let me give you just one example, again related to a News@ASOR story — one we ran a few months ago, seeking volunteers to serve as new members on the Program Committee.

Now, many of us work at colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher education where we have lots of committees, and if you are like most of my colleagues at my university, you spend a large part of your life trying to avoid service on your institution’s manifold committees. Indeed, I have colleagues at my university who should win an award — if there were such a thing — for their expertise in dodging committee assignments. But after the News@ASOR solicitation appeared, seeking three volunteers to serve on the Program Committee, thirteen people wrote, asking us for the opportunity to serve. When does this ever happen?!? It is truly extraordinary — and ASOR thrives as an organization because of the dedication of its member volunteers.

Not only, moreover, do you generously volunteer your time; you give generously from your wallets. Indeed, we estimate that roughly 25% of our members makes a charitable donation to ASOR every year, to support our fellowship programs, or the ASOR Annual Fund, or, most recently, our fund-raising efforts that allowed us to purchase ASOR’s fabulous new and permanent headquarters, the James F. Strange Center in Alexandria, VA. And that 25% of you who give to our fund-raising efforts do so on top of paying your membership dues and your registration fees for the Annual Meeting. To have that kind of support from almost a quarter of our membership is an extraordinary percentage; just so you know, the average membership giving rate for other learned societies is about 5%. ASOR members’ generosity and their willingness to offer their support to our organization is literally off the charts.

Which brings me back to the observation with which I began: I wasn’t lying when I wrote, back in January 2014, that you, our members, are ASOR’s greatest strength, but what I have come to realize, over the last six years is how superficially I understood that statement compared to the way I understand today how much each and every one of you does for ASOR. In short: while I have always spoken truthfully about our dedicated and committed membership — again, always to tell the truth her been one of my governing principles as ASOR President — it has taken me six years to learn the depth of that truth, and to know the depth of your dedication and commitment in ways I only glimpsed dimly back in January 2014.

There is a second principle that has governed me as I have served as ASOR President, and that is “never miss a chance to say thank you.” Now, truth me told (always tell the truth!): when it comes to this principle, I have screwed up over and over and over. There are so many times I should have said thank you to one of you individually, for some effort you made on ASOR’s behalf, or some donation you gave, or some action you took to make ASOR a better organization. But I just somehow didn’t get around to it. There are likewise so many times when I should have said thank you to some of you as a collective — to some ad hoc committee that had taken on some thorny issue on ASOR’s behalf, or to some working group, or just to some self-constituted body that brought me some idea or some insight on how to do things that would, again, make ASOR better and stronger. But, again, somehow, I just didn’t always take the time, or make the effort, to say thank you properly.

But while I can’t go back and fill in all those blanks — I can’t go back and say all the thank yous I should of said then — let me not miss this one last opportunity to extend my gratitude. I am truly and profoundly grateful for everything that each and every one of you has done over the past six years, and continues to do, to nurture, support, and sustain ASOR. Equally, I am truly and profoundly grateful — I cannot tell you how grateful — for everything each and every one of you has done over the past six years to nurture, support, and sustain me. My work as your president has been one of the greatest experiences of my professional life, and I thank you, so much, for giving me this opportunity. It has been an honor, and a privilege, to serve.[/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]Tweets by ASOResearch [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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ASOR ELECTION RESULTS (2019)

There were two openings for Member-elected Trustees (each for a 3-year term) and three openings for Institutionally-elected Trustees (two openings for 3-year terms and one opening for a 2-year term). All ASOR members were eligible to vote in the Member-elected Trustee Election, while only Institutional Representatives of the 70 ASOR-member schools voted in the Institutionally-elected Trustee Election. Both elections were conducted by online ballot.

In addition, Lisa Ackerman and Sheila Bishop were re-appointed as Board-elected Trustees.

Congratulations and welcome to the new members of ASOR’s Board of Trustees![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]

Membership-elected Trustees

Paul V. M. Flesher

My primary training is in the history of ancient Judaism and its texts, but I have always seen archaeological research as an important source for understanding the ancient Near East. I began studying Judaism of the land of Israel during the Roman and early Byzantine periods at the University of Rochester, and then undertook an M.Phil. with Geza Vermes at Oxford University (1982) and a Ph.D. with Jacob Neusner at Brown University (1988).

During my undergraduate days, I also studied computer programming and for the last 40 years have used computers in my research. When I was on the staff of the Tel Miqne excavations in 1995, I was responsible for designing a pottery database and recording finds. More recently, I served on the Huqoq staff for four years, first designing their database, and then guiding recording. Currently, I help lead a project to create an online database archive of the excavation records from the four upper-Galilean synagogues and the Jewish quarter at Sepphoris which Eric and Carol Meyers excavated and published.

When I served as the Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor at the Albright in 2016, I began a multi-disciplinary project investigating how Jewish ritual took place in now-excavated Galilean synagogues. And, unable to stay away from excavation, I served as an area supervisor at Legio (part of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project) this past summer, under the directorship of Matt Adams and Susan Cohen.

Finally, part of what I can bring to the Board is a broad expertise in public outreach that could help ASOR promote Near Eastern archaeology more effectively. I have been an associate editor of the Bible and Interpretation website from its founding, written a bi-monthly newspaper column called Religion Today for 20 years, and for the last decade have organized and promoted a faculty-based lecture series across my state called Saturday University.

Mission Statement: The heart of ASOR is archaeological excavation. Indeed, fieldwork provides the fastest growing body of knowledge of the ancient Near East. For more than a century, ASOR has provided support structures and a strong disciplinary environment that have advanced and enhanced American archaeological work in the region.

Today excavations and their results need to reach audiences beyond the archaeological community. In this era of fewer academic positions and dwindling resources, ASOR needs to make a strong case for the relevance of archaeology and the ancient world more broadly, for the understanding of ancient peoples continues to be relevant today. ASOR’s Strategic plan lays out a multi-pronged strategy to accomplish that, focusing on outreach, publication and education. If elected to the Board, I would work to guide ASOR’s strategy for accomplishing those goals.

Outreach is more than splashy newspaper headlines. Effective outreach requires a variety of digital and internet platforms, supported by networking social media; it requires marketing to the general public and to students—to say nothing of face-to-face interaction in local communities.

Education is another area where ASOR needs to renew its approach. As archaeologists retire, positions are disappearing. We are losing access to our undergraduates, to our future. We need to work with our cognate disciplines to strengthen each other’s position in the academy. We need to make our case now to persuade our institutions that Near East archaeology is an area they should hire.

ASOR needs to continue and even expand its traditional publications, but it also needs to move solidly into digital publication. Lots of experimentation with digital and internet publication has taken place over the last two decades; it is time to assess what has worked, what has not, and then develop our own outlets in a methodical and persistent manner.

Digital publication modes are needed for both new and old research. In current excavations, many new technological techniques require innovative forms of dissemination. For past excavations, ASOR should promote the publication of data archives. While final reports are necessary, their limitations are increasing clear. For proper scientific debate, all excavation data needs to be available for both further analysis and teaching.

If elected an ASOR trustee, I will use my experience in these three areas to help promote the importance of excavations to broader audiences for the benefit of ASOR and its constituents.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/9997-ROBERT-MULLINS-APU2.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Robert Mullins

Robert Mullins is a professor of Biblical Studies at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles where he is also Chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he supervised areas at Tel Beth Shean and Tel Rehov under the direction of Prof. Amihai Mazar with whom he also worked with as a research assistant. Outside of Israel, he worked for two projects in southeastern Turkey at Tell Atchana (Alalakh) and Zincirli Hoyuk (Samal) under the auspices of the University of Chicago. Bob currently co-directs the archaeological project at Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel together with two long-time friends and colleagues from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests encompass Egyptian-Canaanite interaction during the Late Bronze Age, the Late Bronze/Iron Age I transition, Canaanite and Israelite religious cult, and cross-cultural interaction in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean. Two recently published works are “The Late Bronze Age” with Eli Yannai in Volume 3 of The Pottery of Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors and the Atlas of the Biblical World (Fortress Press, 2019) with Mark Vitalis Hoffman.

Mission Statement: I have been a regular member of ASOR since 1996. In the past, I have served as an ASOR trustee and I would like to renew that commitment. I believe in ASOR and I will continue to support its mission regarding the history, people, and cultures of the Near East. I want to see us continue to move in the direction of a creative, vibrant, and diverse organization that serves the needs of its members and instills a greater appreciation of our profession to the public. I want us to continue to foster a culture of inquiry, scholarship, and collegiality that engages students and encourages international involvement, especially among students and professionals from underrepresented regions. With all that is going on in Syria and other war torn regions, we need to support heritage documentation and preservation as a professional responsibility. As the co-director of an archaeological project that has benefited from students having access to ASOR-funded excavation scholarships, I want to ensure that our ASOR membership does not lessen its financial commitment. Finally, I would like to see ASOR take the lead in reaching out to students and other scholars who normally attend SBL to have at least one joint session since everyone benefits from peer interaction and informed dialogue. I believe that ASOR has much to gain from a vision that articulates a clear purpose, demonstrates a high level of integrity, maintains fiscal stability, and promotes organizational structures and processes that effectively fulfill its purposes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]

Institutionally-elected Trustees

Erin Darby

Erin Darby is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and the co-director of the CAP-affiliated ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project in southern Jordan. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Duke University in 2011. Erin is an expert in the Hebrew Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern history and literature. Her publications, including her book, Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual (Mohr Siebeck 2014), focus on the archaeology of ancient religion and the interpretation of religious iconography. As the co-director of the ‘Ayn Gharandal Archaeological Project, she is excavating a Nabataean-Islamic period site and leads the UT Dig Jordan study abroad program. At the University of Tennessee, she is one of the founding members of the Partnership for the Academic Study of Early Judaism, the Knoxville ArabFest cultural festival, the UT Archaeology Day outreach event, and the Tennessee Initiative for Middle East Studies. Erin also works closely with the UT Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Engagement, the Center for Global Engagement, the Office of Undergraduate Research, the Office of Experience Learning, and the Office of Development.

Mission Statement: I have been an active ASOR member since 2008 and have had the privilege of serving in a variety of ways. I was the co-chair of the Junior Scholars Committee (now ‘Early Career Scholars’) for seven years, overseeing its transition to a standing committee and representing the committee on the Chairs Coordinating Council. In this capacity, I also collaborated with the Ethics Working Group and the Initiative on the Status of Women. I have served as the program chair for the Archaeology of the Near East: Bronze and Iron Ages and as co-chair for a number of member-organized sessions. Most recently, I served on the ASOR Ad Hoc Committee for the Location of the Annual Meeting, and I was honored to receive an ASOR Membership Service Award in 2017. I have been the ASOR institutional representative for the University of Tennessee since encouraging the university to join ASOR in 2014.

Serving on the Board of Trustees is a new way for me to demonstrate my gratitude for how central ASOR has been in my professional life and in the lives of my students. My work with ASOR and with university administration has impressed upon me the importance of supporting ASOR in this time of transition in higher education. Alongside all of our current initiatives, I am particularly interested in thinking creatively about the value we bring to institutional members, ways we can articulate that value to institutions, and how we can maximize our connection to students in their classrooms and through ASOR-affiliated field schools. The challenges that are affecting higher education will certainly have an impact on scholarly societies like ASOR, but I believe that the type of learning encouraged through our programs is unique in the field of higher education and has the potential to yield new development initiatives.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/foran.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Debra Foran

Debra Foran is Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research focuses on pilgrimage and trade during the Late Byzantine period (5th to 8th centuries CE) in Jordan.

From 2006 and 2012, Dr. Foran directed the Tell Madaba Archaeological Project. Currently, she is the Director of the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project, which is investigating the role of landscape in the religious and economic development of the site of Khirbat al-Mukhayyat (Jordan). This project is part of a larger regional research effort designed to investigate the development of centralized institutions and state-ordered societies in central Jordan. Dr. Foran has also participated in archaeological field projects in Syria and Tunisia.

Foran has chaired several ASOR sessions on the archaeology of Jordan and the Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. She served as Vice-President and Treasurer of ASOR-Canada (CASOR) from 2004 to 2007, at which time she was elected President, a position she still holds.

Foran joined the ASOR Board in January 2017.

Mission Statement: As a member of the Board of Trustees, I will uphold ASOR’s mandate to promote research into and public understanding of the cultures and history of the Near East. As an institutional member of the Board, I would like to seek out ways for ASOR’s current Institutional Members to become more active participants in ASOR’s programs and initiatives. I would also work on strategies to recruit more Institutional Members. I also wish to foster collaboration with the local communities that are directly affected by the archaeological research of ASOR members. One way of encouraging this collaboration that is of particular interest to me is the integration of national cultural heritage into school curricula. I would like to explore how, as a foreign researchers, the work of ASOR members can contribute to this. Finally, I want to explore innovative ways of incorporating undergraduate education into active excavation and research projects. The inclusion of both North American students and students from local communities will nurture their appreciation for the cultural heritage of the Near East and help safeguard the continuation and future of our discipline.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/hasel.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Michael Hasel

Michael G. Hasel is Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University, where he has also served as Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology since 1998.

Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on ten different excavations in the Middle East, including Gezer, Ashkelon, Dor, Miqne-Ekron, Masada, and Hazor, in Israel; Idalion, Cyprus; and Jalul in Jordan. He has directed excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa and currently is co-director of the Fourth Expedition to Lachish. As curator of the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum, Hasel was responsible for planning and displaying art and objects from the ancient Near East in a state-of-the-art exhibit entitled “Vessels in Time: A Journey into the Biblical World.”

Hasel, an ASOR member since 1989, has chaired several ASOR sessions and served on the Agenda Committee. He held the Samuel H. Kress Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research (AIAR) in 1995-96 and a Fulbright at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in 2005. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research. He has served two terms on the Board of Trustees since 2014.

Mission Statement: I have served as an active participant of ASOR since 1989 while still an undergraduate student and have missed one meeting in 30 years. I have watched ASOR grow into a strong society representing a wide variety of interests and research foci in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. During that same period, I have been actively involved in excavations in Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus while also engaged in Egyptological research. I have co-directed projects at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Socoh and Lachish. As a director of an Institute of Archaeology and museum, part of my vision is to make our field relevant to this and future generations. Over the years I have noticed an increased separation in our field from an interdisciplinary historical approach as witnessed in the roots of ASOR. My concern is that without that connection we are at risk of losing an important and relevant voice to a large segment in North America. It seems that as we have grown, we have also experienced an increased fragmentation which leaves our younger scholars searching for direction and belonging. ASOR has been an important force in facilitating work in the modern Middle East and I would be happy to continue to support and serve as a member of the Board of Trustees.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text responsive_align=”left”]

Re-appointed Board-elected Trustees

Lisa Ackerman

Lisa Ackerman is the Interim Chief Executive Officer of the World Monuments Fund, an organization founded in 1965 that has assisted in the conservation and development of long-term stewardship strategies at more than 600 sites in 100 countries. She has held her position at WMF since 2007 and has developed multiple international collaborative projects in conservation. In addition to general supervision over approximately 60 projects in 40 countries, she is the senior project manager for activities in Cambodia, Iraq, Libya, Thailand, and Tunisia. Previously she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the World Monuments Fund and as Executive Vice President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″ css=”.vc_custom_1503684320408{padding-right: 15px !important;}”][mk_image src=”http://www.asor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/bishop.jpg” image_width=”150″ image_height=”250″ hover=”false”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Sheila Bishop

Sheila Bishop is the President of the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology, which was established “to promote the science of Biblical Archaeology as a discipline by providing funding and support for new and continuing excavations, publication, research, and education.” The Foundation has helped support the Mount Zion Survey, the excavations at Sepphoris, the Roman Aqaba project, the Cana of Galilee project, the reconstruction of a first-century Nazareth farm site, the Tzuba excavation, and the Jezreel expedition. The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology also funds Student Service Scholarships, which provide undergraduates and graduates at ASOR-member colleges, seminaries, and universities with funding to pay for transportation and lodging incurred while attending the ASOR Annual Meeting. In return, students serve as volunteers at the Registration Desk and in service of the Annual Meeting Program Committee and Session Chairs.

Bishop has served on the ASOR Board since January 2011. In November 2016, Bishop received the ASOR Membership Service Award.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/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]Tweets by ASOResearch [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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ANNUAL FUND APPEAL LETTER FROM ASOR PRESIDENT SUSAN ACKERMAN

It’s been a big year for ASOR. Indeed, this past year has surely been one of the most eventful in ASOR’s 119-year history, as we finalized our move from our Boston offices of 22 years to our new location in Alexandria, VA. This relocation culminated in April with our purchase of a permanent and enduring home for ASOR!

This new facility, named the James F. Strange Center in honor of one of ASOR’s most dedicated and long-serving members, is a beautifully renovated 1880 townhouse located in the heart of Alexandria’s historic Old Town. By the time of purchase, we had raised nearly $1 million to acquire our new building, and we have also raised all but $50,000 of funds we need to secure a final $450,000 challenge gift offered to us by an anonymous donor. Once all these monies are in hand, we can pay back the funds we borrowed to buy the James F. Strange Center, plus establish an endowment to finance its ongoing maintenance. We could not be happier to be resident in the James F. Strange Center, nor could I be prouder of our members, who have given so generously in order to make possible this important investment in ASOR’s future.

And the record-setting 461 of you who made a donation to ASOR by the end of 2019 fiscal year, on June 30, helped us do so much more. We continue to enhance our Annual Meeting, and we are thrilled that the 2019 Annual Meeting at the Westin San Diego will have an even richer and more dynamic program—with 60 additional papers and posters—than we presented last time we were in San Diego, in 2014. We have established a new fellowship, the Lawrence T. Geraty Community Archaeology Endowment, to fund conservation projects at archaeological sites, which is the sixth endowed fellowship and grant fund we have put in place since 2013. As of January 1, 2019, we have a new editor for Near Eastern Archaeology, Stephanie Budin, and she’s off to a great start. And our Cultural Heritage Initiatives program has, most recently, helped coordinate a program for Boy Scouts and Girl Guides at iconic Libyan archaeological sites, featuring “pop-up” museums with temporary displays about the sites and jamboree-style workshops.

ASOR could not do all this—and everything else we do—without your help. To the record-setting 461 of you who gave to ASOR in FY 2019, I offer my deepest and most sincere thanks. And I thank all our members in advance for your gifts that will help support ASOR in the year to come. ASOR will thrive because of you!

With gratitude,
Susan Ackerman
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ASOR Office On The Move, Part 1

ASOR’s New Home, located in Old Town, Alexandria, VA

When ASOR was established in 1900, our office was one large room in a Jerusalem hotel. During the past 119 years, we have dramatically expanded our scholarly capacity and public outreach—both abroad and in North America. Yet in North America, we moved frequently, from one host institution to another.

Now, we have finally started the move into our new home. While we don’t close on the purchase until April 24th, the Alexandria staff started moving in last week. The move has been gradual, moving boxes of journals and books and emptying desks at Virginia Theological Seminary.

The staff has been eager to start settings up their new work spaces at Commerce Street so the move has gone smoothly! Office chairs and folding tables make up the temporary furniture for the four Alexandria staff, but they seem to be adjusting well!

Marta, Andy and China meeting in Marta’s new office

Marta and Felice are working setting up internet, phones and printers to be installed after ASOR closes on the building. China is settling ACOR in their new office. Andy is already setting up lunch meetings in the Old Town area.

Felice setting up her temporary work space in her office

The team is excited about the possibilities for how the space will transform into a working and dynamic area in which the

current and future staff are proud to work. It is especially gratifying to know that ASOR is also helping to preserve the local historic architecture of Alexandria (the office was built c. 1880s)! The history of this area is vibrantly alive and maintained along the cobbled streets of Old Town. We hope that you will stop by and visit us when you are next in town. Your generous support is the reason ASOR has a home now. We could not have done it with you. Thank you.

How You Can Help This Move. If you have not already made a gift, please consider joining the “450 for $450,000” challenge gift campaign by donating to ASOR before June 30, 2019 (all gifts, including programs other than the building qualify). If you have already pledged or made a gift to support our new home, please think about increasing your gift or pledge to the building so that we can raise the last $82,000 needed to qualify for this $450,000 challenge.

To recognize your support, we offer naming opportunities at the following levels:

• Naming of conference room or floor = $300,000
• Naming of an individual office (sizes vary) = $100,000 – $250,000
• Name recognition on smaller office spaces = $25,000 – $99,999
• Name on plaque recognizing major donors = $10,000 or more
• Name on a plaque recognizing all donors at “brick” level or higher = $250 or more

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