Ethnicity and the Past: Some Insights from Ancient Egypt

The latest of four very special events in the Department of English and History took place this week as the Ethnicity, Race, and Racism Research Seminars continue.

In February Jacob Norris, PhD student in the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge drew on his pioneering research, archival sources and interviews in, Palestine and the World at the Onset of British Rule - the Case of Bethlehem.

Following this, Edge Hill then welcomed the distinguished Michael Berkowitz, Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London, who discussed his current research interest, Photography and its Jewish Questions: Ethnicity, Anyone?

This latest event, Ethnicity and the Past: Some Insights from Ancient Egypt by Dr Mary Horbury,critiqued the concepts of ‘ethnicity' and ‘race' that have held such influence amongst Egyptologists. Dr Horbury provided an intriguing insight into the life experiences and identities of those who lived in New Kingdom and Coptic Egypt, and argued that an emphasis on ‘ethnicity' and ‘race' skews our understanding of these rich and complex societies. She finished her talk with a slide show of images taken during her research trips to Egypt.

Focusing closer to home, the final event in the programme, The New Racism in Twenty-First Century Britain, presented by Dr Ben Gidley (University of Oxford) will take place on Wednesday 21^st April at 2.00pm in Room M39.