HMC DPhil students host international Egyptology workshop

Two Harris Manchester College postgraduate students organised and hosted a recent international workshop at Harris Manchester College on practices of reuse and recycling in ancient Egyptian society.

David Brügger and Leonie Hoff, both DPhil students in Archaeology, and Dr Hana Navratilova, Supernumerary Fellow and Organising Tutor for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at HMC, organised the workshop alongside Dr Judith Bunbury, a Senior Tutor at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Lea Rees, Junior Research Fellow in Egyptology at University College.

Entitled Recycling and Reuse in Ancient Egypt, the three-day workshop brought together researchers to explore how Egyptians – and those interacting with Egyptian material culture – engaged with the past through physical remains. Designed to foster discussion and collaboration, participants were invited to share preliminary ideas, case studies or methodological questions in short, informal presentations.

The event also featured a public keynote lecture by Kara Cooney, Professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles on coffin and tomb reuse in ancient Egypt.

The workshop concluded on 2 September and was attended by researchers from Egypt, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US, as well as from universities across the UK, thanks to funding from the AMES Griffith Egyptological Fund, HMC, and the Kemet Klub.

David and Leonie commented: “We were delighted to host such a productive and inspiring workshop with colleagues from around the world, made possible by the generous support of Harris Manchester College and the help of its staff. As we move ahead with broader follow-up projects, we look

forward to continuing our partnership with HMC in developing the Egyptology cluster we founded—an initiative to which college members are warmly invited to contribute through our student ‘Egyptology Society’.”