The topic

Museums in Egypt have undergone radical changes over the past few years, most specifically with the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM).  The consolidation of culturally and historically important artifacts at the GEM has allowed older museums to be renovated and redesigned, giving them the necessary space to reinstall their permanent collections and display objects previously held in storage. 

This presentation will offer a look at the current state of collections and the museums that house them, taking us to the GEM and its statue-studded main staircase, the reconfigured Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo, and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC). 

Join us on this visual tour of well-known and beloved artifacts now on exhibit in new and newly imagined museum spaces.

Email us at arce.dc.news at gmail dot com for a link to register for this event.

Our events typically last an hour—50 minutes for the lecture, 10 minutes for Q+A.

The speaker

Dr. Marissa Stevens is the Assistant Director of the Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World at UCLA. Trained as an Egyptologist concentrating on the materiality, social history, and texts of the Third Intermediate and Late Periods, she earned an honors B.A. in history and sociology from Washington & Jefferson College, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation focused on 21st Dynasty funerary papyri to determine funerary iconography’s role in defining an individual’s social identity, specifically with respect to the titles, social position, family lineage, and gender of the Theban elite.

Combining art historical and linguistic approaches, Dr. Stevens’ research focuses on how objects can solidify, maintain, and perpetuate social identity, especially in times of crisis when more traditional means of self-identification are absent.