Egypt Season

This Season explores the rich cultural, archaeological, artistic, and political history of Egypt. We will set creative artistic practice alongside cutting edge technology and research to tell the story of Egypt from the land of the Pharaohs to the modern, diverse country of today.

The Humanities Cultural Programme has as its core mission to collaborate and to connect, to bring into creative tension the worlds of research and artistic practice. In collaborating with world-leading artists and experts across different cultural fields, we seek to contribute creatively to public debate, engaging audiences in thinking about issues and questions critical to our own times.

The HCP is part of TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities), and is dedicated to exploring ways in which innovative work in race and resistance, and in the medical, environmental, and intersectional humanities, might meaningfully engage with audiences and participants of all ages. In so doing we hope to increase the social impact of humanities research and reaffirm its value to our common future.

EVENTS:

Egypt Season takes place between October and December 2022. The following events are scheduled to take place as part of the season. Fuller details and links to book are published on the event specific pages below.

8th and 9th October: Highclere Castle Festival Weekend. Join Oxford researchers at the ancestral home of Lord Carnarvon for a celebration of the centenary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb. 

26th October: Performing the Past: Modern Opera and Ancient Egypt. Hear Humanities Cultural Programme Visiting Fellow international opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo in Conversation with Oxford Egyptologist Prof Richard Bruce Parkinson at the Weston Library.

27th October: Songs for a Young King: Responses to the Tutankhamun Archive. Join Grammy-award winning opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo for a performance of pieces inspired by the Bodleian exhibition Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archives. The Shulman Auditorium, Queen's College. Booking essential.

28th October: Singing Masterclass with Anthony Roth Costanzo. Anthony Roth Costanzo and Prof Owen Rees host the final event in opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo's residency. A workshop for students in the Shulman Auditorium, Queen's College.

18th November: Pharaoh Friday: Late Night at the Ashmolean Musem. An after-hours event at the Ashmolean Museum which will bring the Pharaohs into conversation with cutting-edge technology, and will feature talks from academics and thinkers about the long and varied history and culture of Egypt. The event will also include performances and activities for people of all ages. Not one to miss. Booking essential.  

26th and 27th November: Egypt Film Screenings at the Ultimate Picture Palace. Join us for a takeover of oxford independent cinema Ultimate Picture Palace. Both days will feature a screening of a film from the golden age of Egyptian cinema as well as a modern film exploring the politics of modern Egypt. Live traditional Egyptian music will accompany both screenings, as well as short talk from an Oxford Professor on 26th November. 

28th November - 12th December: Grave Good: Excavating the Archive - Exhibition. Film maker and multi-disciplinary artist Mahdy Abo Bahat will be exhibiting his work at No. 95 Gloucester Green. Stop by to explore his fascinating work and talk with the artist himself. 

Late November and December: King Tut Collective Exhibition. A chance to see the work of a variety of contemporary Egyptian artists and makers working across mediums and disciplines brought to life in the heart of Oxford.  

3rd December: Egypt Film Screenings at the Ultimate Picture Palace. Join us for a takeover of oxford independent cinema Ultimate Picture Palace featuring a screening of The Mummy (1932).

Full details of all events above are given in the event specific listings below. 

Image credit: Griffith Institute watercolour 204 (University of Oxford)

ⓒ Griffith Institute, University of Oxford