Foreword: justice and arbitrariness

The commission for the sector Cultures of the Ancient Near East, Middle East and Africa (10/N1) of the 2012 Italian National Scientific Qualification - ASN (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) assessing the qualifications of candidates for taking part in the competitions for university chairs was excessively severe in its decisions: it qualified 17 out of 75 candidates for the first level of qualification and 101 out of 214 applicants for the second level.

We are not opposed to strict standards, which may indeed be healthy and help the renewal of Italian universities. Severity, however, can in no way be separated from fairness and competence, otherwise it turns into arbitrariness. Administrative justice will address any errors or illegalities, and in some cases is already doing so.

In this letter, we would simply like to make public some of the more general concerns about the work of the 10/N1 commission for the 2012 Italian National Scientific Qualifications.

The competences

As is evident from its name – Cultures of the Ancient Near East, Middle East and Africa – sector 10/N1 covers a vast area of expertise and competences. It ranges from archeology and art history to the study of long-extinct languages and literatures, to the postmodern literature and politics of the nation-states situated in a huge geographical area. The commission was (and is) made up of two specialists in Persian studies (Prof. Carlo Cereti and Adriano Rossi), an Arabist (Prof. Francesca Corrao), a historian of Islam (Prof. Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila) and an archaeologist of the Ancient Near East (Prof. Stefania Mazzoni). These scholars represent only a small part of the competences covered in sector 10/N1. Nevertheless, the commission decided not to make use of external experts even though the law allowed for this. In other words, in many cases the commission judged candidates who are experts in fields in which the commission has no competence.

The minimum requirements

The commission took the initiative to raise the minimum level of requirements for qualification set down by law. It determined that, in addition to the other things set out by law, one or two monographs are necessary, respectively, in order to be qualified to take part in a competition for a second or first level university chair. Again, the judiciary will evaluate the legality of this decision.

Here we only want to express our doubts about the appropriateness of this request. While it may make sense in itself, the point is that it comes from a commission in which some members have not published a monograph since the 1970s. One wonders, then, about the meaning and opportuneness of asking for benchmarks that would create a problem for the very members of the examining commission.

Everything is relative

As it turned out, in many cases, candidates who fulfilled the minimum requirements and had the two monographs - sometimes even more - were still not considered qualified, while other candidates, who did not have them qualified. In most cases, the failure seemed to depend on a negative judgment of the merits of the candidates’ publications. These judgments were expressed in a brief and hasty manner about publications that had required years of work in fields, it is worth repeating, about which the commission has no competence whatsoever. But even more serious is that this happened in the framework of a national qualification system theoretically based on fixed standards, and not in the framework of a comparative evaluation in the context of a single university contest.

The OECD member

The Gelmini Law that established the ASN system laid down that each commission had to include a foreign member from an OECD country, with the more or less explicit aim of counterbalancing the Italian members. In the case of the 10/N1 commission, this OECD member aligned himself with his colleagues’ judgments, presenting his ratings in a few lines which are all but analytical; also, the few lines (which by the way cost the Italian taxpayer a tidy sum) were written in a sometimes broken English, in spite of the fluency in Italian explicitly required by law.

The ultimate goal

The Gelmini Law explicitly states that approval by the ASN is only a prerequisite for access to the contests for first and second level university chairs. However the 10/N1 commission consistently took a position on the candidates’ (un)suitability for first or second level positions, therefore misrepresenting not only the letter of the law, but the very mission that the law had given the commission. When the present Minister of Education, Prof. Giannini, spoke of commissions tasked with giving a driver's license and instead believing they were assigning a Ferrari, she captured the spirit of the 10/N1 commission.

Provisional conclusions

Many scientific areas of oriental studies, already weak in Italy’s university system, will have to struggle to recover from the 2012 round of the ASN National Scientific Qualifications and (re)build a future for themselves, struck as they have been by a commission often completely alien to them. It was as if gastroenterologists were put in a position to block the hiring of oncologists (or vice versa).

We are confident that the judiciary review will ultimately establish the truth and restore justice to this qualification process. We also hope that our exposé of the serious mistakes made by this commission – against the spirit of the law and damaging to the many years of professional effort of a large number of Italian scholars – may serve at least to prevent such errors in the future, because "false balance is an abomination to the Lord, \ but the exact weight is his delight" (Proverbs 11:1).

Signatories

‎

1. Jorge Aguade, Professor, Arabic Language, Universidad de Cádiz, Spagna;

2. Jakob Andersson, Senior Lecturer in Assyriology, Uppsala Universitet;

3. Angelo Arioli, professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura araba, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

4. Pascal Attinger, Dozent, Altorientalische Philologie, Univeristät Bern;

5. Yasemin Bağcı, PhD student, Faculteit Archeologie, Near Eastern, Univeristeit Leiden;

6. Alessandra Bagnera, ricercatore indipendente, Archeologia e storia dell’arte islamica;

7. John Baines, Professor of Egyptology emeritus, University of Oxford;

8. Cristiana Baldazzi, ricercatore, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Trieste;

9. Marie-Françoise Baslez , professeur d'histoire grecque- Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne;

10. Giuseppina Battaglia, funzionario direttivo, Servizio per i beni archeologici, Soprintendenza Bb.Cc.Aa. di Palermo;

11. Gary Beckman, Professor of Hittite and Mesopotamian Studies, University of Michigan;

12. Giampiero Bellingeri, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura turca, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

13. Jonathan Ben-Dov, George and Florence Wise Chair of Judaism in the Ancient World, University of Haifa;

14. Paolo L. Bernardini, Ordinario di Storia Moderna, Università dell'Insubria;

15. Lidia Bettini, già professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Firenze;

16. Paolo Biagi, professore ordinario, Preistoria e protostoria, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

17. Manfred Bietak, Socio straniero dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Professor ‎emeritus of ‎Egyptology at the University of Vienna and Director of the Austrian ‎Archaeological Institute in ‎Cairo 1973-2009;

18. İlker Evrim Binbaş, Lecturer in Early Modern Asian Empires, Royal Holloway, University of London;

19. Anne Binder, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main;

20. Laura Bottini, ricercatore universitario confermato, Storia dei paesi islamici, Dipartimento di scienze umanistiche, Università di Catania;

21. Maria Giovanna Biga, professore associato confermato, Storia del vicino Oriente antico e di Religioni del vicino Oriente antico, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

22. Pier Giorgio Borbone, professore ordinario, Filologia Semitica, Università di Pisa;

23. Alexandra Bourguignon, Scientific and Administrative Support at the Royal Military Academy, Belgium;

24. ‎Nicole Brisch, Associate Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional ‎Studies, København;

25. François Bron, Directeur d’études émérite à l’EPHE; Section des Sciences historiques et philologiques, Paris;

26. Giorgio Buccellati, Professor Emeritus, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA;

27. Giovanna Calasso, professore ordinario Storia della civiltà arabo-islamica, Sapienza Università di Roma;

28. Giorgio Camassa, già professore ordinario di Storia greca presso l'Università di Udine;

29. Isabella Camera d’Afflitto, professore ordinario Letteratura araba moderna e contemporanea, Sapienza Università di Roma

30. Piero Capelli, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

31. Leonardo Capezzone, professore associato, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

32. Estella Carpi, PhD Candidate, the University of Sydney;

33. Lorenzo Casini, ricercatore confermato, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Messina;

34. Mirella Cassarino, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Catania;

35. Antoine Cavigneaux, Professeur honoraire, Assyriology, Université de Genève;

36. Alberto Cazzella, professore ordinario, Paletnologia, Università "La Sapienza", Roma;

37. Francisco Céntola, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Argentina;

38. Bruno Chiesa, professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Università di Torino;

39. Francesco Chillari, Dottorando, Roma La Sapienza;

40. ‎Jerrold Cooper, W.W. Spence Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages Department of ‎Near ‎Eastern Studies Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore;

41. Patrice Cressier, chargé de recherche 1ère classe, CIHAM-UMR 5648, CNRS, Lyon (France) ;

42. Franco D’Agostino, ricercatore, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

43. Natascia Danieli, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

44. Marina Dattilo, dottore di ricerca in Studi Mesopotamici (Univ. Orientale di Napoli), Italy

45. Rients de Boer, Lecturer in Assiriology, VU University Amsterdam;

46. Federico Defendenti, PhD Candidate- EPHE-Sorbonne, Paris (France);

47. Katrien De Graef, Lecturer, Assiriology, Ghent University, Belgium;

48. Francesco Del Bravo, Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie/Near Eastern Archaeology;

49. Marcello Del Verme, già preofessore associato di Storia del Cristianesimo, Università di Napoli;

50. Marco De Pietri, Graduate student, University of Pavia;

51. Barbara De Poli, ricercatore tempo determinato, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

52. Cristina Di Bennardis. Historia de Asia y África antiguas. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina;

53. Rosa Di Liberto, Funzionario architetto, Soprintendenza beni culturali, Provincia regionale di Palermo;

54. Silvia Di Donato, ricercatore, Paleografia e filologia ebraica, EPHE (IVe section, Sciences historiques et philologique), Sorbonne, Paris;

55. Lutz Doering, Professor of New Testament and Ancient Judaism, WWU Münster, Germany, Israel;

56. Rita Dolce, professore associato, Archeologia e storia dell’arte del vicino Oriente antico, Università di Roma Tre;

57. Jean-Marie Durand, Chaire d'Assyriologie (2001-2011), Collège de France;

58. Olivier Durand, professore associato confermato, Dialettologia araba, Istituto italiano di studi orientali, Facoltà di lettere e filosofia, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

59. Sabine Ecklin, Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin „Sumerische Streitliteratur“ SNF/Universität Bern;

60. Fernando Escribano Martín, Graduate Student, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid;

61. Cristiana Facchini, professore associato, Storia del Cristianesimo, Università di Bologna;

62. Silvia Ferrara, Ricercatore a tempo determinato, Civiltà egee, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”;

63. Silvia Festuccia, professore a contratto, Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte del Vicino Oriente Antico", Università degli Studi di Napoli "Suor Orsola Benincasa" e Seconda Università di Napoli;

64. Benjamin Foster, Professor, Assyriology, Director of Undergraduate Studies & Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection, Yale University;

65. Grant Frame, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania;

66. Marcella Frangipane, professore ordinario, Preistoria e Protostoria del Vicino e Medio Oriente, Università "La Sapienza" di Roma;

67. Ida Fröhlich, Professor, Professor of Hebrew Studies and Ancient Near Eastern History, ‎Pázmány ‎‎Péter Catholic University, Budapest;‎

68. Amy Gansell, Assistant Professor, Fine Arts Dpt., St. John’s University;

69. Florentino García Martínez, Emeritus Full Professor of Ancient Judaism and Dead Sea Scrolls at the University of Groningen (NL), Emeritus Research Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (Be),‎ Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences;

70. Franco Gatti, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura cinese, Dipartimento di studi sull’Asia orientale, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

71. Mark Geller, Jewish Chronicle Professor of Jewish Studies, University College, London;

72. Gennaro Gervasio, lecturer, The British University in Egypt, Cairo (Egypt);

73. Claudio Gianotto, professore ordinario, Storia del Cristianesimo, Università di Torino;

74. Julia Giessler, Altorientalistik Department, Graduate Student, Freie Universität Berlin;

75. Demetrio Giordani, ricercatore confermato, Storia dei paesi islamici, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia;

76. Massimo Giuliani, professore associato di Ebraico, Università di Trento;

77. Sarah Graff, Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University

78. Vincenza Grassi, professore a contratto, Epigrafia islamica, Università di Napoli L’Orientale;

79. Simonetta Graziani professore associato di Assiriologia, Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale;

80. Brigitte Groneberg, Professor, Seminar für Altorientalistik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany;

81. Laura Guazzone, professore associato, Storia contemporanea dei paesi arabi, Sapienza, Università di Roma

82. Mattia Guidetti, PhD, Gerda Henkel post-doctoral fellow in Islamic Art;

83. John Healey, Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester;

84. Charlotte Hempel, Reader in Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, University of Birmingham;

85. Ronald Hendel, Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA;

86. Jens Høyrup, emeritus, Section for Philosophy and Science, Roskilde University;

87. John Huehnergard, Professor, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin;

88. Hermann Hunger, Professor of Assyriology, University of Vienna;

89. Robert Jennings, Senior Lecturer, Centre of African Studies, SOAS, University of London;

90. Francis Joannès, Professeur d’Histoire ancienne à l’université Paris 1; Directeur de l’Unité Archéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité, Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès;

91. Charles E. Jones, Tombros Librarian for Classics and Humanities in the George and Sherry Middlemas Arts and Humanities Library, Pennsylvania State University;

92. Vanessa Juloux, PhD Student, Religions and Thought Systems, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, France;

93. Elie Kallas, professore associato non confermato, Lingua e letteratura araba, Dipartimento di scienze giuridiche, del linguaggio, dell’interpretazione e della traduzione, Università di Trieste;

94. Matthias Kappler, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura turca, Dipartimento di studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa mediterranea, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

95. Fumi Karahashi, Professor, Chuo University, Japan;

96. Marilyn Kelly Buccellati, Professor Emeritus, Department of Art, California State University Los Angeles;

97. A. Bernard Knapp, Archaeology, Emeritus,, University of Glasgow;

98. Leonid E. Kogan, Head of The Department of History and Philology of the Ancient Middle East, Russian State University;

99. Manfred Krebernik, Dean of the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Orient, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena;

100. Souadou Lagdaf, Ricercatore TD, Università di Catania;

101. Fiorenzo Lafirenza, professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura cinese, Dipartimento di studi sull’Asia e l’Africa mediterranea, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

102. Angela Langone, ricercatore tempo determinato, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Cagliari;

103. Fabrizio Lelli, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Università del Salento;

104. Lennart Lehmhaus, Research Associate Jewish Studies &History of Knowledge, Freie Universitaet Berlin

105. Brigitte Lion Professeur, Université Lille 3, France;

106. Anna Lissa, Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Seminar für Judaistik, Halle/Saale, (Germany);

107. Mario Liverani, professore emerito, Storia del vicino Oriente antico, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

108. Bernard M. Levinson, Berman Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible; and Professor of Law; University of Minnesota, United States;

109. Dr. Hanne Loeland, University of Minnesota;

110. Edmondo Lupieri, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, John Card. Cody Chair in Theology, Chicago;

111. Gianfrancesco Lusini, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura amarica e di Lingua e letteratura etiopica antica (Ge‘ez), Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo, Università di Napoli L’Orientale;

112. John MacGinnis, Independent post-doctoral researcher, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge;

113. Peter Machinist, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Harvard University;

114. Massimo Maiocchi, Instructor in Assyriology, University of Chicago;‎

115. Giuseppe Mandalà, científico titular, Transmisión cultural e historia de textos árabes, griegos y hebreos, ILCCCHS, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid (España);

116. Patrizia Manduchi, professore associato, Storia dei Paesi islamici, Università di Cagliari;

117. Simone Mantellini, dottore di ricerca in Archeologia, Università di Bologna;

118. Corrado Martone, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Università di Torino;

119. Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault, Directeur d'études - Sciences religieuses, Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris Sorbonne;

120. Giovanna Matini, ricercatrice in Assiriologia, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen;

121. Stefan Maul, Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients, Universität Heidelberg, Germany;

122. Jan-Waalke Meyer, Professor, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main;

123. Augusta McMahon, University Senior Lecturer, Mesopotamia Ancient Near East, University of Cambridge;

124. Diederik Meijer, Faculty of Archaeology, Universiteit ‎Leiden;

125. Daniela Meneghini, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura persiana, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

126. Maria Gabriella Micale, TOPOI. Excellence Cluster, Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie

127. Piotr Michalowski, George G. Cameron Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and ‎Civilizations, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor;

128. Cécile Michel, Director of Research, CNRS;

129. Lucio Milano, Professore ordinario, Storia del Vicino Oriente Antico, Università Ca’ ‎‎Foscari ‎‎Venezia;‎

130. Ianir Milevski, Research Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority;‎

131. Giuliano Mion, ricercatore, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Chieti – Pescara;

132. Manuel Molina, Profesor de Investigación, Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y ‎Oriente Próximo; Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CCHS) del Consejo Superior de ‎Investigaciones Científicas;

133. Caterina Moro, dottore di ricerca, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

134. Paul G. Mosca, Associate Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Language & Bible, University of British Columbia;

135. ‎Alexander Nagel, Professor of Fine Arts, New York University;

136. Hindy Najman, Professor of Religious Studies, Judaic Studies, Classics and Divinity, Yale University, USA;

137. Luigi Antonio Nason, Biblical Theology, Facoltà teologica dell'Italia Settentrionale;

138. Annliese Nef, Enseignant chercheur, Maître de conférences, université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne;

139. Ephraim Nissan, honorary fellow, Centre of Jewish Studies, University of Manchester;

140. Hans J. Nissen, Professor emeritus, Freie Universität Berlin;

141. Lea Nocera, ricercatore tempo determinato, Lingua e letteratura turca, Università di Napoli L’Orientale;

142. Tamsin O'Connell, University Lecturer in Bioarchaeology, Cambridge University;

143. Andrei Orlov, Professor, Marquette University, USA;

144. Paola Orsatti, professore associato, Lingua e letteratura persiana, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

145. Adelheid Otto, Professor, Institutsleiterin Aufgabengebiet Archäologie und Geschichte des Alten Vorderen Orients, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München;

146. ‎David I. Owen, Bernard and Jane Schapiro Professor of Ancient Near Eastern and Judaic Studies ‎and Curator of Tablet Collections in the Jonathan and Jeannette ‎Rosen Ancient Near Eastern ‎Studies Seminar and Tablet Conservation Laboratory, Cornell University;

147. Samuela Pagani, ricercatore, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università del Salento;

148. Giulio Palumbi Chercheur Associé Archéorient, CNRS Lyon;

149. Strahil Panayotov, Professur für Wissensgeschichte, Freie Universität Berlin;

150. Maria Elena Paniconi, ricercatore, Lingua e letteratura araba, Università di Macerata;

151. Dennis Pardee, Henry Crown Professor of Hebrew Studies, University of Chicago;

152. Federica Passi, ricercatore tempo indeterminato, Dipartimento di studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa mediterranea, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

153. Marisa Patulli Trythall, Researcher, Visiting Researcher and Sponsor University Associate, ‎Georgetown University;‎

154. Alberto Pelissero, Professore associato, Lingua e Letteratura Sanscrita, Torino;

155. Mauro Perani, professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Università di Bologna;

156. Silvia Perini, Classics, History and Archaeology, Post-Doc, University of Edinburgh;

157. Mauro Pesce, già professore ordinario di Storia del Cristianesimo, Università di Bologna;

158. Emanuel Pfoh, PhD candidate, University of Buenos Aires;

159. Sergio Angelo Picchioni, Assiriologia, Università di Bologna;

160. Michela Piccin, Sapienza University of Rome - Italy, Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali - ISO, PhD Student;

161. Maria Grazia Picozzi, professore ordinario, Archeologia classica, Università "La Sapienza" di Roma;

162. Raffaella Pierobon, Professore ordinario di archeologia classica, Università di Napoli;

163. Rosanna Pirelli, ricercatore L/OR-02, Università degli Studi di Napoli, l’Orientale;

164. Giovanna Pisano, professoressa ordinaria di Archeologia fenicio-punica, Roma Tor Vergata;

165. Costanza Polizzi, Funzionario direttivo archeologo, Museo archeologico regionale “A. Salinas”, Palermo;

166. Anna Maria Polvani, professore ordinario di Ittitologia, Università di Firenze;

167. Simonetta Ponchia, professore associato di Storia del Vicino Oriente, Università di Verona;

168. ‎Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, New York University;

169. Mladen Popović, Professor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands;

170. J. Nicholas Postgate, Professor of Assyriology, University of Cambridge;

171. Gian Luigi Prato, già professore ordinario presso la Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Roma;

172. Joachim Quack, professor, Egyptology, University of Heidelberg;

173. Eleonora Ravenna, Università la Sapienza, Roma Italy;

174. Jennifer Rampling, Assistant Professor, History of Science, Princeton University;

175. Chiara Reali, PhD candidate, Vienna University;

176. Seth Richardson, Managing Editor, Journal of Near Eastern Studies / Research Associate;

177. Alessandro Roccati, professore emerito di Egittologia, Università di Torino;

178. Gonzalo Rubio, Associate Professor of Classics & Ancient Mediterranean ‎Studies, and History, Pennsylvania State University;

179. Marina Rustow, Associate Professor at Dept of History, Johns Hopkins University;

180. Bonaventura Ruperti, professore ordinario, Dipartimento di studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa mediterranea, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

181. Sabrina Rastelli, professore associato, Arte e archeologia della Cina, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

182. Giuseppe Restifo, Professore ordinario, Università di Messina;

183. Licia Romano, Università la Sapienza, Roma, Italy‎;

184. Farian Sabahi, Cultore della materia "Storia dei Paesi islamici", Univ. di Torino; Professore a contratto in Bocconi, Università della Valle d'Aosta e Academy of Diplomacy Azerbaijan;

185. Paolo Sacchi, già professore ordinario, Ebraico e aramaico e poi Filologia biblica, Università di Torino;

186. Asher Salah, senior lecturer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem & Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Israel);

187. Marco Salati, professore associato, Islamistica, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

188. Walther Sallaberger, Professur für Assyriologie, LMU Universität München, Germany;

189. Mirjo Salvini, già direttore dell'Istituto di studi sulle civiltà dell'Egeo e del Vicino Oriente (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma);

190. Claudio Saporetti, già professore ordinario di Assiriologia, Università di Pisa, direttore del Centro Studi Diyala;

191. Jack M. Sasson, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at ‎Vanderbilt Divinity School‎;

192. Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti, professore emerito, Islamistica, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

193. Ingo Schrakamp Wissenschaftlicher Assistent am Institut für Altorientalistik der Freien Universität Berlin;

194. Stefanie Schrakamp. Institut für Altorientalistik, Freie Universität Berlin;

195. Gebhard J. Selz, Universitätsprofessor für Altorientalische Philologie und Orientalische Archäologie, Chair of Old Semitic Languages and Oriental Archaeology ,Vienna University;

196. Stefano Seminara, dottore di ricerca in Assiriologia, professore invitato presso il Pontificio Istituto Biblico di Roma (fino al 2011);

197. Miranda Semple, PhD Student, Cambridge University;

198. Loredana Sist, Università la Sapienza, Roma;

199. Alice Slotsky, Yale University;

200. Cristina Solimando, ricercatore, Lingua e letteratura araba, Dipartimento di linguistica, Università di Roma Tre;

201. Walter Sommerfeld, Leiter, Universitätsprofessor, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien;

202. Bruna Soravia, professore, Istituzioni e storia dei paesi islamici in Africa e in Asia, Università Luiss, Roma;

203. Lucia Sorbera, lecturer, Arabic Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Sydney (NSW, Australia);

204. Gabriella Spada, Università la Sapienza, Roma, Italy‎;

205. Salvatore Speziale, Dipartimento di storia culture e religioni, Sapienza, Università di Roma;

206. Beth Steiner, Graduate Student, Theology, University of Oxford;

207. Piotr Steinkeller, Professor of Assyriology, NELC - Harvard University;

208. Günter Stemberger, emeritierter O. Univ. Prof. für Geschichte, Kultur und Religion des rabbinischen Judentums, Vienna;

209. Antonio Stinelli, European University Association;

210. Simon Stoddart, Reader in Prehistory, Cambridge University;

211. Claudia E. Suter, Research Associate, Archaeology, University of Basel;

212. Giuliano Tamani, già professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Facoltà di Lingue e letterature straniere, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia;

213. Eibert Tigchelaar, Research professor, Editor-in-chief Journal for the Study of Judaism, Secretary International Organization for Qumran Studies, Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty Of Theology And Religious Studies, Belgium;

214. Raffaele Torella, professore ordinario, Lingua e Letteratura Sanscrita, Sapienza Università di Roma;

215. Emanuela Trevisan Semi, professore associato, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

216. Cristina Tonghini, ricercatore, Archeologia e storia dell’arte musulmana, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

217. Valeria Turriziani, Sapienza University, Rome - Italy;

218. Marc Van De Mieroop, professor, ancient Near Eastern history, Columbia University, New York;

219. Giuseppe Veltri, Professur für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion, Universität Hamburg;

220. Eva von Dassow, Associate Professor, Dept. of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota;

221. Alexandra von Lieven, PD Dr., Ägyptologisches Seminar, Freie Universität Berlin;‎

222. Livio Warbinek, PhD Student, Università di Firenze;

223. Claus Wilcke, Prof. für Altorientalistik, Univ. Leipzig, retired, former chairman of the DFG-Fachausschuß Alte + Oriental. Kulturen, Kult. d. Orients, Germany;

224. Irene J Winter, William Dorr Boardman Professor emerita, History of Art, Harvard University;

225. Martin Worthington, Lecturer in Assyriology, University of Cambridge;

226. ‎Henry T. Wright, Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Anthropology and Curator of ‎Near Eastern Archaeology at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, University of Michigan;

227. Carlo Zaccagnini professore emerito, Storia del Vicino Oriente antico, Università di Napoli ‎‎L'Orientale, Italy;

228. José Ángel Zamora López, Científico Titular , Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo;

229. Patrizia Zanelli, professore a contratto, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia;

230. Francesco Zappa, maître de conférences, Langue arabe et islamologie, directeur-adjoint du département d’études moyen-orientales, Université d’Aix-Marseille (France);

231. Ida Zatelli, professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura ebraica, Università degli studi di Firenze;

232. Ida Zilio-Grandi, ricercatore a tempo indeterminato, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;

233. Riccardo Zipoli, professore ordinario, Lingua e letteratura persiana, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia.