1 November 2020
We are excited to report that many former and current ACOR fellows and affiliates will be participating in the ASOR Virtual Annual Meeting, which will be held online Thursday through Sunday, November 12–15 and 19–22. Please join us in celebrating their innovative and thoughtful research! You can also see the “Program-at-a-Glance” and poster abstracts.
The list below outlines what you can expect to hear about from members of the ACOR community. Also included are several links to related open-access lectures and Insights articles.
Nizar Al-Adarbeh (USAID-SCHEP chief of party) will present on “Integrated Natural-Cultural Heritage Management at the World Heritage Sites of Petra and Wadi Rum” in the session “Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, and Management I.” In addition to presently leading ACOR’s SCHEP initiative, Mr. Al-Adarbeh was awarded an ACOR Jordanian Graduate Student Scholarship in 2007–2008. His “Community-Based Archaeology” lecture is available for online viewing.
Mohammad Alazaizeh, who received the ACOR-to-ASOR travel award to participate in the 2019 annual meeting held in San Diego, will also be presenting in the “Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, and Management I” session on “The Role of Interpretation in Enhancing Visitors’ Sustainable Behavior at Cultural Heritage Sites.”
Joel Burnett (Baylor University), who was awarded a 2020–2021 ACOR-CAORC Fellowship, will present on “The Amman Theatre Statue and the Ammonite Royal Ancestor Cult” (with co-author Romel Gharib) in the session “Archaeology of Jordan III.”
Glenn Corbett (CAORC Program Manager) will co-chair the session “Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, and Management I.” Dr. Corbett received the ACOR NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2011–2012 and has also served as ACOR associate director.
Douglas Clark (La Sierra University) will co-chair (with Suzanne Richard) and participate in the workshop “Preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Madaba Region of Jordan.” Dr. Clark co-directs the SCHEP-supported Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum Project.
Bert de Vries (Calvin College) will also present in the “Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, and Management I” session on the “Umm al-Jimal Site Museum: Interpreting the Past for the Present.” Professor de Vries served as ACOR director from 1998 to 1991 and has been a member of the board since 1995. You can watch his lecture about Umm al-Jimal online.
Pauline Piraud-Fournet (Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow, University of Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne) will present in the session “Archaeology of Petra and Nabataea” on “The Temple of the Winged Lions: A Reassessment Based on the AEP Archives” (with Jack Green). Dr. Piraud-Fournet was awarded the ACOR Temple of the Winged Lions Publication Fellowship in 2019–2020, which you can read about on Insights.
Debra Foran (Wilfrid Laurier University) will present the poster “Four Millennia in Three Dimensions: Digital Media at Khirbat al-Mukhayyat” in the session “Digital Archaeology and History.” Dr. Foran is a member of ACOR’s board of trustees.
David Graf (University of Miami) will co-chair the session “Archaeology of Petra and Nabataea.” Dr. Graf was awarded both an ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellowship and the ACOR NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2013–2014.
John (Jack) Green (ACOR associate director) will chair the session “Online Photo Archives as Tools for Archaeological Heritage Preservation and Engagement” and in that session will present “ACOR’s Photo Archive as a Tool for Research and Engagement in Archaeological Heritage.” You can also read about this project on Insights and watch Jack’s related lecture.
Michelle Heeman (Brandeis University) will present on “Arabia Acquisita? An Examination of the Impact of Sedentarization on the Roman Conquest of Nabataea” in the session “Archaeology of Petra and Nabataea.” Ms. Heeman received the Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship in 2018–2019 to participate in the Petra Pool and Garden Project.
Austin (Chad) Hill (University of Pennsylvania) is giving the paper “Petroglyphs and Desert Kites at Wisad Pools, Jordan,” in the “Prehistoric Archaeology” session. Dr. Hill received an ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2014–2015. While in residence he gave a lecture on the use of drones in archaeology.
Ian Jones (University of California, San Diego) will present in the session “Archaeology of the Southern Levant” and will discuss “Sugar and Settlement in the Middle and Late Islamic Period Hula Valley: Revisiting the 1982–1983 Excavations at Yesud HaMa‘ala.” Dr. Jones received an ACOR-CAORC Predoctoral Fellowship in 2017–2018 (which you can read about on Insights) and an ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2021–2021.
Amy Karoll (University of California, Los Angeles) will present “Tracing Pathways: Early Bronze IV Landscapes of the Southern Levant” in the session “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Collapse, Resilience, and Resistance in the Ancient Near East I.” Dr. Karoll received an ACOR-CAORC Predoctoral Fellowship in 2018–2019 and an ACOR NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020–2021.
Morag Kersel (DePaul University) is participating in the session “The Secret Lives of Objects: Counter Histories and Narratives” and will be contributing “Redemption for the Museum of the Bible: Artifacts, Provenance, and Public Trust in the Contact Zone.” Prior to being a member of the ACOR board of trustees, Dr. Kersel was an ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellow in 2013–2014.
Øystein LaBianca (Andrews University) will present in the session “Complexity Without Monumentality: Rethinking Nomads of the Biblical Period I” on “The Agency Role of ‘Invisible Peoples’ in the Unfolding History of the Southern Levant: The View from Hisban and Vicinity in Jordan.” Dr. LaBianca is a member of ACOR’s board.
Thomas E. Levy (University of California, San Diego) contributed to 10 posters altogether within the sessions Digital Archaeology, Environmental, and Trade and Movement. Prof. Levy received an ACOR NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2002–2003.
Jenna Morton (Umm al-Jimal Project) will be giving the paper “Teaching Archaeology in Umm al-Jimal: A Case Study for the Human Development Paradigm” in the session “Theoretical and Anthropological Approaches to the Near East.” Ms. Morton is a member of ACOR’s board.
Mohammad Najjar (UCSD Levantine and Cyber Archaeology Lab, formerly Department of Antiquities of Jordan) contributed to two posters within the sessions Digital Archaeology and Trade and Movement. Dr. Najjar contributed to ACOR’s work at the Amman Citadel in the 1990s, especially the final publication The Great Temple of Amman—The Excavations (1997).
S. Thomas Parker will present on “The Economy of the Nabataean and Roman Port of Aila (Aqaba): A Diachronic Perspective” in the session “Archaeology of Petra and Nabataea.” Dr. Parker has been a member of ACOR’s board of trustees since 1987.
Megan Perry and Jennifer Ramsay (East Carolina University and SUNY Brockport, respectively) are co-authoring a paper entitled “Funerary Dining or Offerings for the Dead? Archaeobotanical Evidence from the Shaft Tombs at Petra, Jordan,” also in the session “Archaeology of Petra and Nabataea.” Both Dr. Perry and Dr. Ramsay are members of ACOR’s board and former ACOR fellows.
Suzanne Richard (Gannon University) will be co-chairing (with Douglas Clark) the workshop “Preserving the Cultural Heritage of the Madaba Region of Jordan.” She is also presenting the paper “New Evidence for Post-Destruction Recovery and Resilience at Khirbat Iskandar, the EB III/IV Transition, and International Interconnectivity” in the session “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Collapse, Resilience, and Resistance in the Ancient Near East.” Dr. Richard received an ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2015–2016. You can watch her ACOR lecture on the Levantine Bronze Age online.
Yorke Rowan (University of Chicago Oriental Institute) will be chairing the session “Prehistoric Archaeology.” Dr. Rowan was an ACOR-CAORC Postdoctoral fellow in 2007–2008.
Dana Salameen was awarded an ACOR-to-ASOR travel scholarship in 2020–2021. She will present on “The Documentation of Amman Heritage Houses Using EAMENA Methodology” in the session “Cultural Heritage: Preservation, Presentation, and Management I.”
Mohammed Al Shebli was also awarded an ACOR-to-ASOR travel scholarship in the most recent cycle. He will present on “The Conservation Project of Al-Qatranah Archaeological Site: Restoration of the Ottoman Fort, Rehabilitation of the Ancient Water System, and New Insights on Its Historical Urban Context” in the “Archaeology in Jordan III” session.
We encourage you to learn more about this year’s fellowship awards. You can also keep up with ACOR affiliates’ research by subscribing to our mailing lists and browsing our online publications.
