2025 Approved Roundtable Discussions
The following Roundtable Discussions are being offered at the 2025 ñ Annual Meeting during the brown-bag lunch hour on Thursday, November 20 from 12:55–1:55pm (The Square, Lobby Level). Space is limited and advance sign-up is required. Roundtables will be noted as “full” when all of the spaces at the table have been filled. .
1. Building, Training, and Taming Your Own AI Assistant: Opportunities and Challenges for Archaeological Research and Communication
2. Pop Culture and Near Eastern Archaeology
3. Protecting Cultural Sites in Iraq and Syria: The Case of ISIS
4. Teaching with ANE Today
Building, Training, and Taming Your Own AI Assistant: Opportunities and Challenges for Archaeological Research and Communication
Organizer: Oystein S. LaBianca (Andrews University Institute of Archaeology); Matthew Vincent (ACOR Jordan)
AI is moving quickly from novelty to necessity in archaeological research and communication. This Roundtable invites an open, practical discussion on how archaeologists can build, train, and tame custom AI assistants to support workflows across the field—from artifact cataloging and context linking to writing, peer-review prep, exhibit text, and public-facing storytelling. We will explore: (1) Building domain-specific assistants (tools, platforms, data design); (2) Training on archaeological corpora and methods (data quality, metadata, provenance); (3) Applications (case studies in analysis, publication drafting, and outreach); (4) Ethics (bias, transparency, reproducibility, authorship, consent); and (5) Taming—practical guardrails so tools stay collaborative, auditable, and aligned with research goals.
The goals are to (a) surface pain points and opportunities across field, lab, and publication pipelines; (b) share starter “playbooks” for safe/efficient adoption; and (c) sketch a community wish-list for responsible AI in archaeology. Target audiences include dig directors, data managers, collections and publication teams, museum/outreach professionals, editors, and students who want clear, realistic guidance on where AI helps, where it doesn’t, and how to keep humans firmly in the loop.
Pop Culture and Near Eastern Archaeology
Organizer: Michael Zimmerman (Bridgewater State University); Debra A. Trusty (University of Iowa)
This Roundtable aims to generate conversations about the study of archaeology of the Near East with a focus on archaeological and historical education through storytelling – movies, television, digital and analog games (“archaeogaming”), immersive experiences, escape rooms, virtual reality, and in news media. The goal will be to help form potential paper topics about archaeology and pop culture, including stereotypes, misconceptions and pseudoarchaeology in media, as well as more positive interactions between Near Eastern archaeology and media, including the use of tools found in pop culture for research, education, community engagement, and heritage management.
Protecting Cultural Sites in Iraq and Syria: The Case of ISIS
Organizer: Imad A Farhadi (iNNOV8 Research Center); Noor Kamaran Omer (iNNOV8 Research Center)
This roundtable will explore the devastating impact ISIS has had on cultural heritage sites in Iraq and Syria, including the destruction of ancient cities, museums, and religious monuments. We will discuss how these acts were not only attacks on history but also deliberate efforts to erase identities and fund terrorism through looted artifacts. The discussion will focus on the challenges of protecting heritage in conflict zones, efforts by local and international communities to safeguard and document endangered sites, and strategies for future preservation and recovery. This session is ideal for archaeologists, historians, heritage professionals, and anyone interested in the intersection of conflict, culture, and human rights in the Near East. Participants will share insights on how to balance security concerns with cultural preservation and how to support those risking their lives to protect their shared history.
Teaching with ANE Today
Organizer: Elise A. Friedland (George Washington University)
This Roundtable seeks to support both the outreach mission of ñ and the pedagogical needs of its professional members who teach undergraduate students by focusing on the feature articles published in The Ancient Near East Today and their use in college curricula. ANE Today’s feature articles offer ideal material for college courses. They are open access, both free and easily found online; they are accessible, that is aimed at non-specialists and therefore able to deliver real scholarship in a shorter format that is written in readable prose; and they are timely, providing the latest research and interpretations as well as current topics. Attendees will brainstorm and share ideas for using ANE Today articles in undergraduate courses with the aim of providing models for how to integrate these articles into various commonly offered courses; they will have the opportunity to provide feedback to the current ANE Today editor both on content for future ANE Today articles and the user interface for the ANE Today website; and they will discuss the development of an educator-specific survey about ANE Today. Organized by a long-term ñ member, undergraduate professor, and Friends of ñ (FOA) Ambassador in conjunction with the editor of ANE Today and ñ’s Communications Manager, this Roundtable aims to draw attention to the already-existing and future feature articles of ANE Today and to harness these more purposively as part of ñ’s impact on undergraduate education.