Professor Oystein LaBianca

Oystein S LaBianca (PhD. Anthropology, Brandeis 1987) is a senior research professor of anthropology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and associate director of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University in the USA. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of over twenty books dealing with the archaeology of Jordan, including the 14-volume Hesban Final Publication Series. He is a founding co-director of the Madaba Plains Project (MPP), currently excavating in Jordan at Tall Hisban, Tall al-Umayri, and Tall Jalul, and senior director of the Hesban Cultural Heritage Project, a community archaeology initiative focused on engaging the local community in the care, protection and presentation of this important biblical, classical and Islamic site. He is a former member of the board of trustees and former vice-president the American Society of Research (ASOR) in Alexandria, VA, and also a trustee of the American Center of Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan. For six years he was chair of ASOR’s Committee on Archaeological Policy and Research (CAP). He has also represented Middle East anthropology and archaeology on the steering committee of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association. He has been a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, and at the Center for International Development (later UNIFOB Global) at the University of Bergen in Norway. His research in Jordan has received research grants from, among others, the National Geographic Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of State’s Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Heritage Preservation, and the Research Council of Norway. Also see: https://explorer-directory.nationalgeographic.org/oystein-s-labianca