ARCE Virtual Book Club #1: “Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms” by Julia Troche

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In celebration of international Literacy Day, we invite you to join us this quarter as we launch the ARCE Library Book Club with our inaugural selection: Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms by Dr. Julia Troche, who will attend the event moderated by Dr. Kathleen Sheppard.

Book blurb:

Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (Cornell University Press 2021) is not one more book on the Egyptian afterlife. Rather, it is a uniquely focused treatise that considers how power was constructed, maintained, and challenged in ancient Egypt, through the particular lens of mortuary culture and apotheosis. It explores the perceived agency of esteemed dead in ancient Egyptian social, political, and religious life, during the Old through Middle Kingdoms (c. 2700-1650 BCE). In particular, it investigates the phenomenon of apotheosis—the process through which one becomes deified—and argues that in certain instances, such as near the end of the Old Kingdom, certain dead were mobilized to subvert royal power.

Reviewer Dr. Jiří Janák of the Czech Institute of Egyptology comments that the book “is a well-approached study that brings fresh perspectives on ancient Egyptian religion and the concept of afterlife in the pre-New Kingdom. Troche integrates current research with individual case studies and provides an essential stepping-stone for anyone interested in ancient Egyptian concepts of the afterlife.”

A translation in Spanish is currently under development.

Author Bio: 

Dr. Julia Troche is an Egyptologist and Associate Professor of History. In 2022 she was awarded her university’s highest teaching award followed by the Missouri Governor’s Award for Education Excellence. She is committed to advocating for students, early career scholars, and contingent faculty, and fostering inclusive spaces for learning about the ancient world. She currently serves as Governor on ARCE’s Board, is Chair of ARCE’s Annual Meeting Committee, and is co-chair of ASOR’s Growth, Innovation, and Visibility Committee. Her PhD in Egyptology was earned at Brown University following her BA in History from UCLA. Julia loves spending time in Egypt, where she has led tours and worked as an archaeologist in Abydos and Karnak Temple, Luxor.

Moderator Bio:

Dr. Kathleen Sheppard is a Professor in the History and Political Science department at Missouri S&T in Rolla, Missouri. She earned her MA in Egyptian Archaeology at University College London in 2002, and her PhD in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma in 2010.

She has spent her whole career telling the stories of women in Egyptology. Her most recent book, Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age (St. Martins Press, 2024) is a grand retelling of the history of Egyptology through the work that women did.

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