04
OctARCE-Chicago: A Field of Their Own: Putting the Women of Egyptology in Their Place by Dr. Kathleen Sheppard
This lecture highlights pioneering women in early Egyptology who, through excavation, patronage, and publication, created professional spaces for themselves and shaped the discipline, challenging societal limitations on women’s work and freedom.
- 5 PM CT/ 1 AM Cairo Chicago
- In-person/ ZoomOI LaSalle Room
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Lecture Information:
A woman, to paraphrase Virginia Woolf, must have money and a site of her own if she is to do archaeology. Woolf was talking about writing fiction, but the point remains: women must be free from domestic cares, even just for a little while, if they would be professionally productive. The women who worked in archaeology around the turn of the twentieth century understood this situation keenly and some were able to live out their freedom in a variety of ways. In this talk, I will (re)introduce several women in the history of Egyptology who carved out spaces of their own through excavation, patronage, and publication and who shaped the discipline with their expertise.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard is Professor in the History and Political Science department at Missouri S&T. Her focus of study is the history of Egyptology. Her most recent book, Women in the Valley of the Kings, tells a history of Egyptology through the perspective of women’s work in the field. Her 2022 book, Tea on the Terrace: Hotels and Egyptologists’ Social Networks, investigates the role of hotels as hubs in the professional and friendship networks of Egyptologists in the late 19th and early 20th century. She received her MA in Egyptian Archaeology from UCL in 2002 and her PhD in History of Science from University of Oklahoma in 2010.
Photo Credits:
Headshot: Sean Elliott Photography, 2023
Jonas Broome Calverley: Egypt Exploration Society, 1929