Congratulations to Silvia, who successfully defended her dissertation today!  With her are her committee members, Professors James Allen, Leo Depuydt, Matthew Rutz and, using the Zoom application to connect from EPHE (Paris), Andreas Stauder.  Excellent work, Silvia!

The department of Egyptology and Assyriology and the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World celebrated Professor Shiyanthi Thavapalan's first book "The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia"  (actually her second publication, as she co-edited "The Value of Colour. Material and Economic Aspects of the Ancient World" with David Warburton).  Well done, Shiyanthi!

It is with sadness the the Department of Egyptology and Assyriology shares the news of the passing of Professor Lanny D. Bell on August 26, 2019.  Lanny was a kind and gifted teacher, researcher and friend to many and will be remembered long beyond that date.

The Department is very pleased to relay the news that Professor Shiyanthi Thavapalan received the International Association of Assyriologists (IAA) Dissertation award at this year's Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI) meeting in Paris July 8-12, 2019.  Her dissertation, which is titled 'The Meaning of Colour in Ancient Mesopotamia' will be published by Brill Publishers later this year.  Congratulations, Shiyanthi!

The Department of Egyptology and Assyriology is very pleased to announce that Margaret (Maggie) Geoga has been awarded the Best Student Paper at the 2019 Annual American Research Center in Egypt conference.  We are not surprised, but definitely proud of you, Maggie!  Congratulations.

The following report from Vicky Almansa was submitted upon her return from working at an excavation site in Giza, with funding from the Brown University Middle East Studies:

We are delighted to share the news that second year graduate student Sara Mohr has been awarded funding for her work on 3D modeling of cuneiform tablets. The competition was organized by Digital Hammurabi, which was created to provide funding for current PhD students working on Ancient Near East-related topics. 

We invite you to join a diverse range of scholars reviewing the reception, use, and misuse of the Ancient Near East in early modern art, literature, scholarship, and politics. Fourteen speakers will explore the ways that the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia were imagined and their history constructed by scholars, artists, and writers during the early modern period (ca. 1600–1800) – and the political and social uses that they were put to.

Jessica Tomkins '18 Ph.D. has been selected to be Cal State San Bernardino’s inaugural W. Benson Harer Egyptology Scholar in Residence for winter quarter.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Mathieu Ossendrijver (Humboldt University, Berlin) will present the second Annual Otto Neugebauer Lecture in the Exact Sciences in Antiquity, titled "Chaldeans on the Nile. New evidence for the transmission of Babylonian astronomy to Egypt."  Please join the Department of Egyptology & Assyriology for this talk at 5 PM in Petteruti Lounge, Stephen Roberts Ctr, 75 Waterman St on Monday, April 9.  Refreshments follow.