Egyptomania Seminar 24 March, hybrid format: Rita Lucarelli

Dear All,

Greetings from Cape Town! 

I'll be giving a seminar on Egyptomania tomorrow, which will be also livestreamed on Teams. If you need entertainment over breakfast (it will be 8.10 am in California), attached is the info, and feel free to share with anyone interested.

Rita

Rita Lucarelli

Associate Professor of Egyptology

Class of 1939 Chair in Undergraduate Education

Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (Office #246)

UC Berkeley 

Faculty Curator of Egyptology

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley

The Book of the Dead in 3D:

https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~bookofthedead/

The Handbook of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

From: Damons, L, Mev [ldam@sun.ac.za] <ldam@sun.ac.za>
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2026 10:10 AM
Subject: Ancient Studies Research Seminar 24 March: Rita Lucarelli

 

Dear Colleagues, Students and Friends,

 

Please join us next Tuesday 24 March in the departmental seminar room (FASS 332) for the final Department of Ancient Studies Research Seminar of the first term. Next week one of our visiting academics, Professor Rita Lucarelli of the University of California, Berkeley, will be presenting some of her research on Egyptomania and Afrofuturisim to us. Attached is a poster of her presentation, and the title and abstract are included below in this message.

 

If you are not able to join in person, you are welcome to join online by clicking here or following this link: Department Research Seminar: Rita Lucarelli | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

 

To attend, please email Mrs Louise Damons (ldam@sun.ac.za) at least 24 hours in advance.

 

Looking forward to seeing you there!

 

 

 

Egyptomania and Its Afterlives: Ancient Egypt in Global, National, and Black Cultural Imaginations

Tuesday 24 March, 17:10 in Arts 332 and online*

 

The reception of ancient Egypt has been one of the most enduring and complex phenomena in the history of cultural memory. >From classical antiquity to the modern era, Egypt has been repeatedly reimagined, appropriated, and mobilized in what is often termed "Egyptomania." This seminar explores how ancient Egypt has functioned as a powerful cultural symbol across different historical and political contexts, particularly from the nineteenth century to the present.

The talk examines the ways in which ancient Egypt has been invoked in European and American cultural production, from archaeology, exhibitions, and architecture to literature, film, and popular culture, often reflecting broader intellectual currents such as Orientalism, colonialism, and the construction of Western historical narratives. At the same time, the seminar considers how modern Egyptian intellectuals, artists, and state institutions have engaged with the Pharaonic past in shaping national identity, negotiating the legacy of colonial archaeology, and articulating modern Egyptian nationalism.

A further focus will be the reception of ancient Egypt within the Black Atlantic world. The seminar discusses the role of Egypt in the intellectual and cultural history of the African diaspora, including its importance for Black nationalism, Pan-African thought, and Afrocentric scholarship. It also explores contemporary artistic and speculative engagements with Egypt in Afrofuturism, where the ancient Nile civilization becomes a site for imagining alternative histories, futures, and identities.

By bringing these perspectives together, the seminar highlights ancient Egypt not as a static historical object, but as a dynamic and contested cultural resource, continually reinterpreted across global, national, and diasporic contexts.

Reminder: Northern Cal. Egyptology Lecture Sunday: Joy and Fulfillment in Late New Kingdom Royal Art

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Dr. Tara Prakash, College of Charleston: Happy as a Pharaoh: Joy and Fulfillment in Late New Kingdom Royal Art Sunday, March 15, 2026, 3 PM PDT Room 223 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley This is an in-person lecture, not virtual. The lecture will not be recorded. King Seti I presenting cloth to the god Amun-Re, from the temple of Seti I at Abydos, Dynasty 19, New Kingdom (Photograph: Tara Prakash) About the Lecture: According to the ancient Egyptian belief system, the pharaoh was the most powerful human in the cosmos. He was at the intersection of the divine and mortal realms, understood to be part of both at once. Emotions played an important role in his power, and certain emotional qualities were closely tied to kingship. In this talk, I will focus on one of these: happiness. The inscriptions carved on late New Kingdom (c. 1292–1077 B.C.E.) temples and royal monuments articulate the various types of happy feelings that the king and those around him, both human and divine, were supposed to feel. Such feelings were also portrayed in the accompanying imagery. While ancient Egyptian art may look restrained and emotionless to modern viewers, who are accustomed to looking for facial expressions to recognize emotions, this talk will argue that Egyptian art is filled with emotions, including happiness. About the Speaker: Dr. Tara Prakash is an associate professor at the College of Charleston. She received her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with a specialty in the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt. Dr. Prakash has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Johns Hopkins University, and she previously was the W. Benson Harer Egyptology Scholar in Residence at California State University, San Bernardino. She is the author of numerous articles on different aspects of Egyptian material and visual culture, and her book, Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues: Fragments of the Late Old Kingdom (Lockwood Press, 2022), is the first comprehensive study on the prisoner statues, a unique series of Egyptian statues that depict kneeling bound foreigners. Her current book project uses late New Kingdom royal monumental inscriptions and imagery to investigate the emotions and feelings associated with ancient Egyptian kingship. --------------------- Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in the Lower Sproul garage near Dwinelle Hall, and in other nearby lots. A parking map of the campus is available at https://pt.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/campus_parking_map_august_2025.pdf. To find out how to get to room 223 in Dwinelle Hall, go to this website: https://dkess.me/dwinelle/. Not all entrances to the building will be unlocked, so it's best to start from the main entrance. About Northern California ARCE: For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.

--   Sent from my Linux system.