REGIONAL SPECIALIZATION AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Ancient Egyptian and Nubian culture, archaeology, and history; texts and archaeology; mortuary studies; sacred landscapes; the archaeology of individuals; the politics of biography; complex societies (ideologies of power, strategies of materialization, social transformations, frontier zones, wealth and the distribution of commodities); the disciplinary history of Egyptology.

EDUCATION
Northwestern University 9/77 - 6/81: B.A. (6/81), Antrhopology and French.

Universite de Paris-IV and l'Ecole du Louvre 9/79 - 6/80: special student in Egyptian art and archaeology (Sweetbriar College Junior Year Abroad Program).

University of Pennsylvania 9/81 - 8/92: Ph.D., Anthropology and Oriental Studies.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Current
Associate Professor of Egyptology (2004-present), Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan.

Associate Curator for Dynastic Egypt, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (2004-present), University of Michigan.

Project Director, University of Michigan Abydos Middle Cemetery Project, Abydos, Egypt (1995-present). Full scale archaeological investigation of late Old Kingdom provincial mortuary landscape.

Research Associate, University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1992-present.

Research Affiliate, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan (1996-present).

Previous
Assistant Professor of Egyptology (1998-2004), Department of Near Eastern Studies; Assistant Curator for Dynastic Egypt, Kelsey Museum (1997-2004); Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art (1994-95); Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies (1995-96, 1997-1998), and Visiting Assistant Curator, Kelsey Museum (1994-1998), University of Michigan.

Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College (1993-1994).

EXTRAMURAL PROFESSIONAL WORK
American Research Center in Egypt:
          Executive Committee, 2003-ongoing
          Board of Governors, 2000-ongoing
          Long Range Planning Committee, October 1999-ongoing
          Research and Expeditions Committee, April 2002-April 2003
     
Professional reviews for National Geographic Society; National Endowment for the Humanities; Australian Research Council; Journal of Anthropological Archaeology; International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, American Journal of Archaeology; Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient; Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology.
     
President, Ann Arbor Chapter, Archaeological Institute of America, 2000-present.
     
Program Co-Chair, Annual Meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1997.

PUBLICATIONS
Books
The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: essays in honor of David B. O'Connor. Co-editor with Zahi Hawass. 2 volumes. Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, 2007.

Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: mortuary landscapes of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Order, Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient States. Co-Editor with Mary Van Buren. Cambridge University Press, New Directions in Archaeology series, 2000.

Individual and Society in Ancient Egypt: deciphering Weni the Elder. In preparation; contracted for publication in 2009 with Cambridge University Press.

Exhibition Catalogues
Preserving Eternity: Modern Goals, Ancient Intentions. Egyptian Funerary Artifacts at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Co-editor with Terry G. Wilfong. Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1995.

Gender in the Kelsey Museum Egyptian and Near Eastern Installation. In T. Wilfong, Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt, pp.90-91. Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1997.

Articles and Chapters in Books
Kingship and legitimization. In The Archaeology of Egypt. Blackwell Global Studies in Archaeology. Cambridge: Blackwell. In press; forthcoming 2009.

An archaeological biography. In Z. Hawass and J. Richards (eds.), The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: Essays in honor of David B. O’Connor. Volume I: xxi-xxvi. Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, Cairo, 2007.

The archaeology of excavations and the role of context. In Z. Hawass and J. Richards (eds.), The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: Essays in honor of David B. O’Connor. Volume II: 313-319. Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, Cairo, 2007.

The M50 group and the Abydos cemeteries during the Middle Kingdom. In Egyptian Art in the Nicholson Museum, Karin Sowada and Boyo Ockinga, Editors. Mediterranean Archaeology Supplementary Volume, Sydney, Australia. 2006.

Text and context in late Old Kingdom Egypt: the archaeology and historiography of Weni the Elder. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 39, 2002.

The loss and rediscovery of the Vizier Iuu at Abydos: magnetic survey in the Middle Cemetery With Tomasz Herbich. In E. Czerny, Ed., Festschrift Manfred Bietak. Vienna, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie. 2005.

The Abydos cemeteries in the late Old Kingdom. In Z. Hawass, Ed., Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo. American University in Cairo Press, 2003. Pp. 400-407.

Time and memory in ancient Egyptian cemeteries. Expedition: Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Winter 2002. Pp. 16-24.

Quest for Weni the Elder. Archaeology, June/July 2001. Pp. 48-49. Part of two issue feature on Abydos site. Reprinted in Year of Discovery: The Very Best From the Pages of Archaeology Magazine. Pp. 53-55, plates 4 &5. Hatherfield Press, December 2002.

Introduction: ideology, wealth, and the comparative study of 'civilizations.' Co-author with M. Van Buren; in J. Richards and M. Van Buren, Eds., Order, Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient States. Pp. 3-12. Cambridge University Press, New Directions in Archaeology series, 2000.

Modified order, responsive legitimacy, redistributed wealth: Egypt, 2260-2040 BC. In J. Richards and M. Van Buren, Eds., Order, Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient States. Pp. 36-45. Cambridge University Press, New Directions in Archaeology series, 2000.

Conceptual Landscapes in the Egyptian Nile Valley. In W.Ashmore and B. Knapp, Editors, Archaeologies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectives. Pp. 83-100. London: Blackwells, 1999.

Ancient Egyptian mortuary practice and the study of socio-economic differentiation. In J. Lustig, Editor, Anthropology and Egyptology: A Developing Dialogue. Pp. 33-42. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology, Sheffield Press, 1998.

Abydos: Middle Kingdom Cemeteries. In K. Bard, Editor, The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Pp. 95-97. Routledge, 1998.

Chapel I at Deir el Ballas. In P. Lacovara, Editor. Deir el Ballas. Pp. 11-14. Eisenbrauns Press. 1990.

Understanding mortuary remains at Abydos. Newsletter of the American Research Center in Egypt. Vol. 42: 5-8. 1989.

Reviews
Book review of Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw, Editors. Ars Orientalis, vol. XXXI. Pp. 191-193, 2001.

Book review of Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis, Lane Beck, Editor. American Antiquity 62 (2): 380-382, 1997.

Book review of The Old Kingdom Cemetery at Hamra Dom by Torgny Save-Soderbergh and From Pharaohs to Farmers by Kathryn Bard. American Journal of Archaeology 101:165-166, 1997.

Other Publications
Individual and society in ancient Egypt: Anatomy of an exhibition. Kelsey Museum Newsletter Fall 2002. Pp. 1-4.

A Kelsey mummy encounters modern medicine. Kelsey Museum Newsletter; Spring 2002, pp. 6-7. (with Terry Wilfong).

The archaeology of individuals. Kelsey Museum Newsletter, Fall 2001, pp. 4-7.

Weni the elder and his mortuary neighborhood at Abydos, Egypt. Kelsey Museum Newsletter, Spring 2000. Pp. 6-9.

EXHIBITIONS
Reinstallation of Dynastic Egyptian collections. Upjohn Wing of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. In process; opening 2009.

"Individual and society in Ancient Egypt." Exhibition of Kelsey Museum artifacts with loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

"Egypt and the ancient Near East." Permanent installation of the Kelsey Museum's ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Collections. Opened February 1998.

"Death in ancient Egypt." With Terry Wilfong. 1996-98. Kelsey Museum.

"Latin Funerary Inscriptions." With Terry Wilfong. Part of the permanent installation of the Greco-Roman Gallery of the Kelsey Museum. Opened January 1996.

"Preserving Eternity: Modern Goals, Ancient Intentions." With Terry Wilfong. 1995-96.

FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE
Excavation Supervisor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Expedition to New Kingdom site at Deir el Ballas, Egypt (New Kingdom). 1986.

Excavation Supervisor, Early Dynastic Project, Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition, Abydos, Egypt. 1986.

Excavation Supervisor, University of Toronto Expedition to East Karnak, Luxor, Egypt (Late Period Site). 1985.

Excavation Supervisor, Egypt Exploration Society Mission to Tel el-Amarna, Egypt (New Kingdom). 1985.

Epigrapher, Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Abydos, Egypt. 1985.

Student, Northwestern Archaeological Field School, Kampsville, Illinois. 1983.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Office of the Vice Provost for Research/LSA, $15,000; Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, $2,700; for Abydos Middle Cemetery Project, 2007.

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, awarded December 2004 for AY 2005-06.

Michigan Humanities Award, awarded December 2004 for AY 2005-06.

American Philosophical Society Fellowship, awarded February 2005, accepted for AY 2006-07.

American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, awarded February 2005 for AY 2005-06, declined.

Office of the Vice Provost for Research/LS&A, publication subvention of $2,500, for Society and Death in Ancient Egypt published by Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Office of the Vice Provost for Research/LS&A, $10,000; Institute for the Humanities, $2,500; Museum Studies Program, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Near Eastern Studies Department, IPCAA Program, and University of Memphis, $2,500 total; for the exhibition and lecture series "Individual and society in ancient Egypt." 2003.

National Geographic Society, $20,000 for Abydos Middle Cemetery Project. 2001.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant: "Casting A Wider Net -- Multimedia Courseware," [Overall coordinator, Frederick Amrine, University of Michigan], Middle Egyptian Section [P.I. Janet H. Johnson, University of Chicago, Researchers Janet Richards and Terry Wilfong, University of Michigan], 1998-2002. $950,000 multi-year grant awarded December 1998-2002.

Office of the Vice Provost for Research, $20,000; for Abydos Middle Cemetery Project, 1999.

Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, Fall 1999 and Winter 2001. $14,000 total for graduate participation in Abydos project and for safety equipment.

National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, 1988. For excavations at Abydos, $10,000.

American Research Center in Egypt, 1988. For excavations at Abydos, $8,000.

LANGUAGES
Ancient Egyptian: Old, Middle and Late Egyptian; Hieratic
French: Reading, writing and speaking (fluent)
German:Reading and conversational speaking
Arabic: Conversational speaking (colloquial Egyptian)

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Society for American Archaeology
American Anthropological Association
Egypt Exploration Society
American Research Center in Egypt

home :: about :: faculty :: programs :: fellowships :: resources :: courses
alumni :: undergraduate information :: graduate admissions :: gradhandbook :: affiliates