2025 17ԹBOARD OF TRUSTEES ELECTION RESULTS
Thank you to all the 17Թmembers who voted in this year’s Board of Trustees election!
The Board of Trustees sets the direction for 17Թand provides oversight for our organization. Among other responsibilities, members of the Board agree to attend two meetings each year, to participate thoughtfully in the governance process, and to contribute financially to ASOR. All 17Թmembers are eligible to vote in the Member-elected Trustee Election, while only Institutional Representatives of the 55 ASOR-member schools may vote in the Institutionally-elected Trustee Election.
Yorke Rowan and Ido Koch will serve 3-year terms as Member-elected Trustees.
Kathryn Grossman ԻMichael Hasel will serve 3-year terms as Institutionally-elected Trustees.
Read more about the newly-elected and reelected Trustees below.
Yorke Rowan
Yorke Rowan is an anthropological archaeologist and Research Professor at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) at the University of Chicago. He focuses on later prehistory (Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze), with thematic research interests in death, prehistoric ritual performance, and material objects mediating these human actions. He is a Fulbright Scholar to Jordan and a NEH Fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and the American Center of Research in Amman. His most recent publications include The Social Archaeology of the Levant: From Prehistory to Present (2019, Cambridge Press, co-edited with A. Yasur-Landau and E. Cline), “Desert Kites: Neolithic Infrastructure in the Margins” in Infrastructure in Archaeological Discourse: Framing Society in the Past (2024, Routledge, co-authored with A. C. Hill) and “The Black Desert Drone Survey: New Perspectives on an Ancient Landscape” in the journal Remote Sensing (2022) with A.C. Hill. He co-directs the NSF funded Kites in Context ԻEastern Badia Archaeological Projects, two projects in the Black Desert of Jordan.
Mission Statement: Since the 1990s, 17Թhas been fundamental to my development as a professional scholar and field archaeologist. The first grant I received for field research was an 17Թtravel scholarship, and the first national professional paper I delivered was at 17Թin New Orleans. I have a long dedication to the success of ASOR, serving on the editorial boards of Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research ԻNear Eastern Archaeology, co-chairing the Program Committee after for two previous terms on the committee, serving on the Honors and Awards Committee, and the Committee on Archaeological Policy. In addition, I co-chaired and co-organized various sessions such as the standing session “Prehistoric Archaeology” (2015, 2019-2021) and the member organized “Archaeology of Religion and Ritual” (2005-2006). My involvement with 17Թis complemented by extensive engagement with communities on the ground in different countries, emphasizing my commitment to creating more collaborative opportunities with colleagues based abroad.
The organization has grown tremendously since I joined as a graduate student, with a welcome expansion to include a broader range of topics, geographic regions, and chronological periods. This growth is not limited to scholarly interests but includes increased worldwide accessibility through a hybrid meeting format. I believe it is important to sustain and build on this positive trend to build membership, engage with members at different career stages, and seek to find new collaborative partnerships that will only strengthen ASOR. As 17Թfaces new challenges like complicated funding realities, regional civil unrest, and climate change, the organization must mount new initiatives and endeavors to respond to member needs. As a member of ASOR’s Board of Trustees, my goal will be to promote its mission to disseminate knowledge of western Asia and Mediterranean ancient societies, and to make that scholarship more accessible to the public. Finding creative ways to promote our research, particularly those of our research partners, to a variety of audiences is a challenge that will strengthen our organization and continue to interest future generations of students, the public, and scholars.
Ido Koch
Ido Koch is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. A field archaeologist of the southern Levant, his research explores interregional connectivity, colonial encounters, visual language, craft, and material religion. He is the author of several monographs, dozens of articles, and co-editor of ten volumes. Koch co-directs the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project, the renewed excavations at Tel Qasile, and the final publication of the Tel Arad excavations—all of which place strong emphasis on innovative documentation strategies, community outreach, and the dissemination of archaeological knowledge to diverse audiences. He is co-PI of several collaborative ventures, including the historical–archaeological study of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Haditha (one of the few academic archaeological projects addressing the recent past of Israel/Palestine), and the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant Project together with its comprehensive open-access online companion database. Koch also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and sits on several international editorial boards. Through his research and teaching, he integrates advanced digital tools with inclusive, community-based approaches, engaging both Jewish and Arab students, to help build inclusive and forward-looking connections between academic, archaeological, and wider communities in the study of the southern Levant.
Mission Statement: I have been a member of 17Թsince 2009, have attended nearly all annual meetings since then, and have interacted with scores of 17Թmembers of all ages and backgrounds. 17Թhas been my professional cradle and the place where I learned to appreciate the value of an international network, a value I hope my students will inherit.
As a scholar based in the Middle East, I believe 17Թmust strengthen the representation of voices from the regions it studies. The societies who live in the lands whose pasts we uncover deserve a place in shaping how that past is researched, understood, and represented. As an Israeli archaeologist working on the remote and recent past of the southern Levant, I am acutely aware of the region’s diversity and complexity. Based on my experience, 17Թand its sister institutions (such as the W.F. Albright Institute) are uniquely positioned to foster dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian scholars, a dialogue urgently needed now more than ever. I see my role as a bridge: between 17Թand local scholarly and cultural communities, and between those communities themselves. In times of deepening divisions, we must hold fast to both our professional and human ties. In my fieldwork and collaborations, I strive to create spaces where Jewish and Arab students, alongside colleagues from different backgrounds and perspectives, can work together toward shared understanding. Archaeology can and should serve as a medium of dialogue, and as a reminder of our intertwined pasts and shared humanity.
Drawing on my experience directing and co-directing field projects, I recognize the need for 17Թto advance ethical, inclusive, and community-oriented archaeology. I propose developing a collaboratively produced “fieldwork toolkit,” drawing on the collective knowledge of ASOR-affiliated projects. This toolkit would guide projects that prioritize community engagement, the dissemination of results to local institutions, and accessible digital platforms for sharing data. Through such initiatives, I hope to help 17Թlead by example—making archaeology both academically rigorous and socially meaningful.
Kathryn Grossman
Kathryn Grossman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. She is an archaeologist with expertise in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Cyprus and Mesopotamia and a methodological specialty in zooarchaeology. She is Director of the ASOR-affiliated Makounta-Voules Archaeological Project (Cyprus), as well as zooarchaeologist for the Kani Shaie Archaeological Project (Iraqi Kurdistan), the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition (Egypt), and the Petra North Ridge Project (Jordan). She is currently co-editing, with Jesse Casana and Eric Jensen, the final report on the excavations at Tell Qarqur, Syria.
Mission Statement: I have been involved with 17Թfor seventeen years. I began attending and presenting at the annual meeting as a graduate student, and my engagement has deepened over time. I served on the Committee on Archaeological Policy for two terms, and during that time I also chaired the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. In 2018, I presented the work of the Fellowships Subcommittee at that year’s Legacy Dinner, and in 2023 I received an 17ԹService award for my work on the CAP Fellowships Subcommittee. I chair the Archaeology of Syria sessions at the Annual Meeting, am a member of the Damascus Committee, a member of the Executive committee, the chair of the Trustees Nominations Committee, and I serve as the institutional representative for 17Թat North Carolina State University. In my time as an 17Թmember, I have watched the organization grow dramatically in its geographic scope and evolve to meet the demands of 21st-century scholarship. In serving as an Institutionally-elected member on the 17ԹBoard of Trustees, I look forward to helping 17Թmove forward with the issues that loom before us, including increasing our outreach to diverse audiences at home and abroad, and promoting the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Michael Hasel
Michael G. Hasel is Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University, where he also serves as Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology since 1998.
Hasel has participated and served in administrative capacities on eleven 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 and surveys at Khirbet Qeiyafa and Socoh 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” and several temporary exhibits including “Peace and War: The Assyrian Conquest of Lachish” (2023-2025) and “The Ivory Comb: Lice and Literacy at Lachish” (2025).
Hasel, an 17Թmember since 1989, has chaired several 17Թsessions 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 and the NEH Fellowship at the Albright Institute in 2025-26. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research and Tyndale House, Cambridge.
Hasel joined the 17ԹBoard in January 2014.
Mission Statement: Over the past 36 years of my involvement with ASOR, I have watched 17Թgrow 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. As an excavator I am interested in encouraging the archaeological interplay between text and material culture. This integration has been one of the historic strengths of 17Թand I believe it remains vital as 17Թcontinues to position itself as an important and relevant voice to a large segment of North America. As a museum director part of my vision is to make our field relevant for future generations through popularizing archaeological discoveries and making it accessible to a larger segment of society. This would include encouraging young scholars who are searching for direction and belonging to get involved in ASOR while fostering connections in the regions it serves. To accomplish these goals, I would welcome the opportunity to continue to support and serve as a member of the Board of Trustees for another term.