Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Longtime Mississippi State religion professor and Middle Eastern archaeologist Joe D. Seger is receiving the highest achievement award presented by the American Schools of Oriental Research.
A university faculty member since 1982 and director of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology since 1988, Seger received the prestigious Richard J. Scheuer Medal at the national organization's recent 2006 annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
"I'm greatly honored by the recognition of my colleagues and proud to be part of ASOR's robust academic assembly," said Seger.
The Scheuer Medal is named for the venerated life trustee of ASOR and first recipient of the award in 1989. Considered ASOR's top honor, it was presented to Seger by unanimous concurrence of the ASOR awards committee.
The medal is given to honor one who emulates Scheuer's "long-term service as a trustee, outstanding generosity in supporting ASOR and all of its affiliated overseas institutes, and sustained vital interest in the objectives of the ASOR mission."
"Joe's contribution to ASOR, in my book, has been his leadership," ASOR board chairman P.E. MacAllister said in presenting the award to Seger, who joined the organization in 1976 and became its president 20 years later.
"He has been there, done that, in each step whose total course is archaeology, in all the minutiae of structure and operation and administration that exist to support the craft itself," MacAllister said of Seger, the author and editor of eight books and monographs, myriad articles, essays, and book reviews.
A native of Wisconsin, Seger received a bachelor's degree from Elmhurst College in Illinois in 1957, a bachelor of divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary in 1960 and a doctorate in theology from Harvard University in 1965. His research specialties include Near Eastern archaeology and Old Testament history.
MSU's Cobb Institute of Archaeology is a research and service unit of the College of Arts and Sciences. It was founded in 1971 to promote archaeological research and education related to the Middle Eastern origins of Western Civilization and to the Indians of the South, particularly in Mississippi.
Earlier in his career, Seger was an associate professor of Old Testament and archaeology at Hartford Seminary Foundation, and archaeological director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at Jerusalem's Hebrew Union College. He also served as director of the Omaha Children's Museum, and instructor in religion and foreign languages at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.
ASOR is a non-profit, member-directed society dedicated to scholarly pursuits in Near Eastern archaeology. Founded in 1900, the organization has focused its attention in countries all the way from the eastern Mediterranean to the Tigris-Euphrates (river) valley and beyond--the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
"ASOR is moving forward into its second century of support and service to the discipline of Middle Eastern archaeological research, and the recovery of our historical roots in the ancient Near East," said Seger.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Dr. Seger at 662-325-3826 or jds1@ra.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.