VICE PRESIDENCY OF UISPP

Yesterday the General Assembly of the UISPP was held, within the schedule of the XVIII World Congress that is taking place in the Sorbonne University/ Paris. The new board was approved by acclamation, of which I have the honor to participate as vice president.

Thus, in the next 3 years I will be associating the role of UISPP vice president with the position of president of the Scientific Commission “Archaeological Heritage Policies and Management Structures”.

We are two vice presidents, Dr. Abdoulaye Camara (from Sénegal) and I. Our challenge is to extend the scientific scope of the institution beyond Europe, especially considering the contemporary topics of Archeology in the global challenges of this century.

The board consists of 5 members, and I present below a brief introduction of the other 4 members:

•  President: Dr. Fran?ois Djindjian. University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne (UFR 03): Associate Professor of the Chair of methods and theory of Archaeology (until August 2015). CNRS/UMR 7041 Arscan (team Central Asia): research associate since 1991. Program of international collaboration with the Institute of archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kiev, Ukraine) (since 1993): excavations on the Palaeolithic site of Gontsy (Ukraine). International Council of philosophy and Human Sciences of UNESCO: Vice President since 2010.
• Vice-President: Dr. Abdoulaye Camara. He holds a PhD (Geology and Prehistory) from the University of Provence, is retired from the University of Dakar. His publications in Senegal focus on the stratigraphic framework of Paleolithic tools in the east of the country, on the shell clusters of the Saloum Delta and on the heritage aspects of the island of Gorée. Curator of the Historical Museum of Gorée (1989 to 2005), and the Museum of African Art in Dakar (2005 to 2008). He is Associate Professor of the Senghor University in Alexandria (since 1995) and continues archaeological research in the Faleme Valley (University of Geneva).
• Secretary General: Dr. Marta Arzarello. Professor, Università di Ferrara, Italy. Director of the International Master and doctorate in Quaternary and Prehistory. Coordinator of several (local unit/project coordinator) international founded projects: FP7, EM, Galielo, Coperlink, CNR-CNRST, IP-Socretes-Erasmus. Since 2011 expert at the EC (FP7 and H2020). Deputy Director of the Doctorate in “Human Science”, University of Ferrara. Director of the excavations of Pirro Nord and Ciota Ciara. Main areas of research: technology and economic behaviour during the Middle and Lower Palaeolithic in Italy; the first peopling of Europe; the Middle Palaeolithic cultures of the Sahara, Lithic technology and experimentation. 
•  Treasurer: Dr. Apostolos Saris. He holds a B.A. in Astronomy & Physics (1985) and an M.A. in Physics (1988) from Boston University, a M.Sc. (1990) and a Ph.D. in Physics/Geophysics (1992) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is Research Director and Head of GeoSat ReSeArch Lab of FORTH, a Research Associate of the Dept. of Anthropology, The Field Museum of Natural History of Chicago, Illinois, USA and lecturer of the University of Aegean. He acted as Vice-Chair of the International Society of Archaeological Prospection (ISAP) and he is currently President of CAA-GR. He is also a Member of the International Expert Group for the Russian Science Foundation and of the Evaluation Panel for the European Science Foundation.

The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (Union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques – UISPP) was founded on May 28th, 1931, in Bern, and its headquarters is in Paris. It groups together all the sciences related to prehistoric and protohistoric studies. It ensures the promotion of multidisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration through the regional and thematic scientific commissions and affiliated organizations, that share similar objectives, as well as with other scientific institutions.

UISPP has been a member of the UNESCO associate International Council of Philosophy and Human Sciences since 1955. As an international association of scholars, its aims included the collaboration of scholars from all countries through initiatives that may contribute to the progress of prehistoric and protohistoric sciences, fully accepting the principles of academic freedom.

Dr. Marta Arzarello, Secretary General - Dr. Fran?ois Djindjian, President - Dra. Erika M. Robrahn-González - Vide-President - Dr. Moustapha Sall, who received a UISPP award for his research in Africa - Dr. Abdoulaye Camara, Vice-President.