Professor Christina Riggs [afikra Conversations]
Christina Riggs talked about ancient Egypt and how the fields of archaeology, art history, and Egyptology developed in tandem with colonial and imperial expansion.
Christina Riggs is a historian of photography and archaeology, with a particular interest in North Africa and the Middle East. Her research has considered how different people, at different times, have imagined, studied, and represented the culture we know as ‘ancient Egypt’ – and how the fields of archaeology, art history, and Egyptology developed in tandem with colonial and imperial expansion. Most recently, she has been working on the history of the Tutankhamun discovery and the different trajectories taken by the tomb, its 'treasures', and its archive, from the 1920s to the present day. This is the subject of her most recent book, Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century (Atlantic Books 2021; US and Italian editions out in 2022). Her study of the photographic archive of the Tutankhamun excavation, including the work of Harry Burton, has been published in a book called Photographing Tutankhamun (Bloomsbury 2019), as well as several articles, catalogue essays, and as a museum exhibition.
About the afikra Conversations
Our long-form interview series features academics, arts, and media experts who are helping document and/or shape the history and culture of the Arab world through their work. Our hope is that by having the guest share their expertise and story, the community still walks away with newfound curiosity - and maybe some good recommendations about new nerdy rabbit holes to dive into headfirst. Following the interview, there is a moderated town-hall-style Q&A with questions coming from the live virtual audience on Zoom. Join the live audience: https://www.afikra.com/rsvp
