UCLA recently hosted a small group of Egyptian and Sudanese scholars for a workshop focused on the exploitation of the Nile in both the ancient past and contemporary present.
Held in late October, “Exploring the Nile in the Arts of Ancient Northeast Africa” was led by Kara Cooney, professor of Egyptian art and architecture and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Jonathan Winnerman, assistant director of UCLA Global Antiquity. It was generously sponsored by the Getty Foundation’s Connecting Art Histories Initiative.
The workshop fostered conversations about authoritarian control and hoarding of natural resources, colonialism and the destruction of cultural heritage, and the repatriation of objects. Attendees also visited the Getty Villa and the Los Angeles River.
Participants were Maryan Ragheb, a UCLA graduate student in archaeology, and Ahmed Hamden (6th of October University), Ahmed Mekawy Ouda (Cairo University), Essam Nagy (Egypt Exploration Society), Heba Abdel Gawad (University College London), Mohamed Faroug Ali (International University of Africa), Monica Hanna (Arab Academy for Science), Rennan Lemos (Cambridge), Shadia Taha (Cambridge) and Stuart Tyson Smith (UC Santa Barbara).