ASOR 2021 ANNUAL MEETING PLENARY ADDRESS | PROF. MORAG KERSEL

Wednesday, November 17, 2021
7:00pm – 8:30pm | Hilton Chicago

The 2021 Plenary Address will be given by Dr. Morag Kersel, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Museum Studies Minor at DePaul University.

Morag M. Kersel is an archaeologist who works in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. She earned a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge. She also holds a Master of Historic Preservation (with Distinction) from the University of Georgia, a Master of Arts in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Classical Studies from Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. In addition to participating in archaeological excavations and surveys in Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey, Morag is interested in the relationship between cultural heritage law, archaeological sites and objects, and local interaction. She has published a number of articles and is the co-author (with Christina Luke) U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology: Soft Power, Hard Heritage (2013) and co-editor (with M.T. Rutz ) of Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics (2014).

We, the members of ASOR, live with legacies. Nineteenth and twentieth century fascination with the people and places related to the Bible resulted in a more formalized archaeology and a series of national cultural heritage laws, but also fostered an enduring western interest in the region that often marginalized local participants. We live with the legacy associated with these colonial and imperial origin stories of archaeological practice and practitioners in the Eastern Mediterranean. We also live with climate change, conflict, development, economic insecurity, iconoclasm, looting, and pandemic, factors that impact our investigation, interpretation, and protection of the past in the present. Increased recognition of these legacies and challenges has resulted in a more self-aware archaeology, characterized in part by greater collaboration with local partners, producing a less extractive and more inclusive archaeology. Every day, I see the future of living with legacies and doing good in the eastern Mediterranean in your collaborative fieldwork and publications, in the archaeo-activism of your op-eds, social media posts, and TV appearances. But our work is not done. Drawing upon ethnographic and archaeological projects in Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, I will examine the work we do (let’s be honest, archaeology is one big group project, I do all of my work either with colleagues, students, and collaborators or through the kindness of strangers), the good and the sometimes not so good. I will demonstrate that ASOR archaeo-activism does not demand overtly political or extreme methods, advocating instead for a more nuanced approach to archaeology in the 21st century. Change lies in the small things (and periods) forgotten (Deetz 1977), in an archaeology that uses modern tools and technologies as agents of activism, and in foregrounding local engagement with sites and objects. Living with legacies takes an unrelenting commitment to doing better and leaving a legacy of good.