MEET THE NEWLY-ELECTED TRUSTEES
ñ is pleased to announce the results of our recent election for two Individual and two Institutional representatives to the ñ Board of Trustees. The ñ Board sets the direction for ñ and provides oversight for our organization. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year at their own expense, to participate thoughtfully in the governance process, and to contribute financially to ñ.
Individual RepresentativesTrustees
Theodore Burgh
Theodore Burgh is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. He holds his degrees from the University of Arizona (M.A./Ph.D.), Howard University (M.A.), and Hampton University (B.A.). His research interests are the archaeology of ancient Israel and the Near East, the Hebrew Bible, archaeomusicology (the study of ancient music culture), the reconstruction of Syro-Palestinian and Near Eastern music culture and cataloging musical artifacts, utilization analysis of Syro-Palestinian sacred and secular space, and ethnomusicology.
Mission Statement:
I am truly grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve onthe ñ Board. It is an honor to be a part of ñ’s distinguished history. It would be a privilege to continue to serve an organization that has provided so much for me.
I have been an active ñ member since 1996, presenting numerous papers and chairing sessions. I have been a part of the membership committee for nearly fifteen years. On short notice, I also substituted for the 2012-13 Vice-President and chaired the 2012 ñ Members Meeting.
As a trustee, I will continue tobring commitment and experience. Building on existing success, these are a few areas where I think ñ could expand its services to the Academy generally and to members specifically. I would like to continue efforts to incorporate technology in ñ’s development. ñ is working to strengthen global connections and bringing excavations and archaeological conversations together in exciting new ways. ñ understands that it is very difficult for some scholars and students in various parts of the world to attend ñ conferences. However, thus, we have initiated discussions regarding implementing technology that could possibly live streaming or provide recorded lectures and papers delivered from these scholars and students. ñ will also continue to explore how to possibly share specific lectures and symposiums in the same manner and incorporate Q&A whenever possible. To have top archaeological scholars sharing short clips within articles and reports that can be accessed any time would be invaluable sources.
Lastly, I would like to see continued energy with the membership and outreach committees. Efforts with such endeavors asFriends of ñwill be essential to maintaining the organization’s future membership and developing inclusivity.
Thomas Schneider
Thomas Schneider is Professor of Egyptologyand Near Eastern Studies at the Universityof British Columbia, Vancouver. Since 2012, he has also served ñ as Editor of Near Eastern Archaeology and ex officio member on the Committee on Publications. He holds a Master’s degree, adoctorate, and a habilitation in Egyptology fromthe University of Basel. He was a VisitingProfessor at the University of Vienna in 1999 and at the University of Heidelberg in2003-4. From 2001 to 2005, he wasa Junior Research Professor of the Swiss NationalScience Foundation at the University of Basel,and from 2005 to 2007, holder of theChair in Egyptology at the University of Wales,ɲԲ.He was a visiting scholar at NYUin 2006, atBerkeley in 2012, and a guest lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2016.He has widely published onEgyptian interconnectionswith the Levant and the Near East (including Egypt and the Bible), Egyptian historyand chronologyand thehistory of Egyptology in Nazi Germany.Heis founding editor of the Journalof Egyptian History,was the editor-in-chief of “Culture and History of the Ancient Near East” for Brill (2006-2013), and area editor history for the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology.
Mission Statement:
For the past six years, I have had the privilege to experience ñ from the specific perspective of editor of Near Eastern Archaeology. This perspective has, first and foremost, been an outstanding opportunity: An opportunity to be a creative part of the ñ community; an opportunity to motivate scholars from across the world to write for NEA, and to disseminate knowledge on the Near East; an opportunity to work with a passionate editorial board and the ñ leadership. Since my editorship has also coincided with the aggravation of the political and heritage crisis in the Middle East, being NEA editor has also meant to have my finger on the pulse of the time. In the preface I wrote for the June 2015 issue, I discussed Laurent Olivier’s comments about the role archaeology plays as a science not of the past but of the present: The way in which remains have escaped destruction is a direct reflection of how the present came about; the present is the repository of the past’s surviving materiality. The heritage crisis in the Middle East, flagged up in the September 2015 issue of NEA, showshow indispensable it is for ñ to assume, in the present situation, a political role as an interpreter and guardian of the past’s material memory. In my prospective role as Trustee, I would see it as important to strengthen ñ and to underscore its eminent political role in preserving that memory. I would also want to support ñ in its advocacy – with many sister organizations – of the need to educate global society and advance research in history and the humanities.
Institutional RepresentativeTrustees
Joe Greene
Joe Greene, Deputy Director and Curator of the SemiticMuseum of Harvard University, received his Ph.D. in archaeology in 1986 at theOriental Institute of the Universityof Chicago. He completed eight seasons offieldwork in Carthage (Tunisia), directing the Carthage Survey from 1980 to1983. He has been a National Endowment for the HumanitiesFellow in Jordan, aFulbright Fellow in Cyprus, and has directed excavations and surveys in bothcountries. In 1987–88 he directed the USAID Cultural Resource ManagementProject inJordan and in 2001–2001 served as a consultant to the Petra NationalTrust, a Jordanian NGO devoted to the preservation of the archaeological siteof Petra. He has been editor of theAmerican Schools of Oriental Research(ñ)Archaeological ReportsSeries(2003–2008), of the ñAnnual(2009–2014), and now serves asan editor for Manar al-Athar Publications basedat Oxford Univeristy and as a board member for the Friends of Manar al-Athar. Hisresearch interests focus on archaeological survey and landscape archaeology oftheMediterranean/Middle East region with emphasis on the first millenniumB.C./A.D., on cultural resource management in the Mediterranean/Middle Eastregion, and on museums and the history of museums in Mediterraneanand MiddleEastern countries. Since the 1980s, he has led tours in the Eastern and WesternMediterranean, most recently to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan in 2011, to Turkeyand Greece in 2013 and to Central Asia and Iran in2016. In 2014–2015 he was amember of a Harvard-based consulting museum group working in Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Mission Statement:
In my 30-plus years as a member of ñ, I have enjoyed manifold benefits of that membership. I have attended ñ’s annual meetings, participated in its affiliated field projects, received its fellowships, served on itscommittees, edited its publications, and lived and worked at its overseas institutes. In 2015-2017, I served as an ñ Trustee as the institutional representative for Harvard University. As a returning Trustee, I would, asbefore, play a role in assuring that these benefits continue to be available to rising generations of students of the ancient Near East.
To that end I believe that ñ should strengthen its core functions–its publications and its annual meetings–as well as provide ongoing support for research through its fellowships and through the overseas institutes that itcreated and helped to build in Jerusalem, Amman, and Nicosia. ñ, through its Committee on Publications, should continue to develop a robust presence in electronic scholarly publication. Through the Committee onAnnual Meeting and Program, it should expand the scope and attendance of the annual meeting while helping to expand membership and ensure that this enterprise is self-supporting. ñ must also find way to make itsCommittee on Archaeological Policy (CAP) relevant to the contemporary archaeological research environment, both at home and abroad. ñ must also develop the financial means to support the initiatives of COP, CAMP,and CAP. It should also pursue new initiatives such as a formulation of a policy of professional conduct consistent with ñ’s Mission and Strategic Plan, the ongoing, Survey on Field Safety, the Initiative on Women inñ and the Cultural Heritage Initiative.
Carol Meyers
CarolMeyers was born inWilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She went to Kingston High School,Kingston, Pennsylvania; made her B.A. with honors atWellesley CollegeinWellesley, Massachusettsand her M.A. and Ph.D. atBrandeis UniversityinWaltham, Massachusetts.
Meyers started to teach at Duke University in 1977. She writes and teaches in the areas of biblical studies, archaeology, and the study of women in the biblical world. She has been described as “one of today’s leading historians and field archeologists”.Her 1988 book,Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, was the “first comprehensive effort to present a female-centred view of the Bible usinghistoricalrather thanliterary criticism”.Meyers has also written commentaries onExodus,Haggai, andZechariah.
Meyers served as president of theSociety of Biblical Literaturein 2013.She also served as part of the revision team for the 2010New American Bible.
She is married to fellow biblical scholar and Duke professorEric M. Meyers.
Mission statement:
As a member of ñ for many decades, I have seen this organization respond over and over again to many challenges–including economic, political, and technological ones–and come out stronger. I was privileged to be a member of the strategic planning committee that helped reorganize and refocus our energies. The hard work and dedication of its officers, board members, and members has made ñ stronger than ever. My hopes for the future are that our organization will continue to meet challenges and carry its mission forth in these turbulent times. Our Syria initiative is a good sign that we are in fact doing that