Tracing Representations of Ancient Egyptian Royal Women

I participated in the GPRI Graduate Exchange Program at the American University in Cairo during the fall of 2025 with the objective of conducting research and collecting iconographic data for my dissertation on symbols of power in the iconographic programs of ancient Egyptian queens. During my 6-week stay, I was very fortunate to work with Miriam Ayad, one of the lead Egyptologists specializing in ancient Egyptian women, who graciously offered to supervise my progress. I had originally anticipated using my time in the program to take advantage of the library resources—especially the Rare Books and Special Collections Library—and perhaps form connections with faculty members while taking advantage of being in proximity to the museums around Cairo. However, I was pleasantly surprised to have the opportunity to sit in on several classes and to participate in class trips to museums (where we were given a guided tour) and archaeological sites such as Saqqara. These classes—which were taught by Professor Ayad and renowned Egyptologist and former director of the University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Survey (Luxor), Raymond Johnson—were also relevant and extremely beneficial to my research, covering topics on art from the Amarna Period and ancient Egyptian religion. I also attended one of the Intermediate Middle Egyptian reading courses which introduced me to texts I not previously translated. Although I only sat in on these courses for a partial semester, each introduced me to primary and secondary sources that I was previously unaware of and that are now vital to my analysis. Moreover, Professor Ayad invited me to present on one of my core sources of previous scholarship which offered me the opportunity to not only revisit the material but to also practice conveying complex theoretical ideas. 

Perhaps what I found most surprising about this opportunity was the fact that, despite being an exchange program, my position at AUC—which was as a Scholar-Without-Stipend—was actually of “faculty” status. This meant that, in order to access the campus (via security clearance) and its amenities, I had to apply for an Egyptian work permit. This was an unexpected and extremely stressful aspect of planning my trip, however it did offer surprising benefits such as access to the faculty lounge for quieter study space and easier access into the campus’s archaeology labs. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this exchange, despite its short duration, resulted in successfully networking with several faculty members (who I have since reconnected with at conferences) and forming close connections with students in the program, many of whom I am still in contact with. Professor Ayad also provided me with much more support than I had expected to receive due to the short-term and independent nature of the exchange. In addition to her guidance on my research, she also provided me with much-needed mentorship on how to best navigate the field and to access restricted collections, sites, and projects, while also encouraging me to think about life and career beyond the PhD (which is something many of us often forget to do). 

Beyond my experience at AUC, I used this program to my advantage to spend an additional month in Egypt collecting data for my analysis prior to the start of the academic term. I spent the month of August travelling around the Nile Valley with stops in Luxor, Giza, Abu Simbel, Aswan, and Minya (near Tell el-Amarna) to visit archaeological sites where I photographed images of queens, princesses, and goddesses. In addition to visiting sites and museums in the immediate vicinity of each location, I also scheduled day tours and private transfers between cities to visit sites that were less accessible but still provided valuable visual data. These sites included the temples at Abydos, the tombs at King Akhenaten’s famous city of Tell el-Amarna, the New Kingdom Temples at Amada and Wadi es-Sebua, and the Speos of Horemheb and shrines at Gebel el-Silsila. My visits to the sites of Amada, Wadi es-Sebua, and Gebel el-Silsila were particularly impactful to my research as they are generally more difficult to access and are therefore rather empty of tourists. This greatly helped my attempt to reconstruct the context and sensory experience of these structures and the images of royal women within them.