The International Association for Archaeological Research in Western & Central Asia (ARWA) was founded in 2020 and brings together approximately 500 scholars from various disciplines in the humanities and natural sciences who work on the cultures of Western and Central Asia. The members come from countries in West, Central and East Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe and North and South America. The association is divided into ten thematic liaison groups and is administered by a three-member board that is elected. ARWA aims to stimulate interdisciplinary discourse across countries and, in particular, to involve colleagues and students from the countries of Western and Central Asia, who often suffer from difficult access to literature and recent research data on the cultures of their own countries. An online academy as well as numerous webinars and workshops are intended to remedy this situation. Every two years – alternating with the International Conferences of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE) – an international conference (ARWA-IC) is to take place, which will also provide the framework for the general assembly of the members.
