Participant Info

First Name
Christina
Last Name
Riggs
Country
United Kingdom
State
Affiliation
University of East Anglia (Norwich); All Souls College, University of Oxford
Website URL
https://www.uea.ac.uk/art-history/people/profile/c-riggs
Keywords
Egypt, ancient Egypt, archaeology, photography
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
c.riggs@uea.ac.uk
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a historian of archaeology and photography, with a focus on ancient Egypt and its art. I am interested in how different people, at different times, have imagined, studied, and represented the culture we know as ‘ancient Egypt’.

I have written about the history of mummy unwrappings, the use of photography during the 1920s excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun, and the history of how museums have collected and displayed Egyptian antiquities. I’m especially interested in the impact of 19th-20th century colonialism and imperialism on the Middle East – and how that shaped the development of archaeology. If you’re looking for an Egyptologist to say the same old things about ancient Egypt, you’ve come to the wrong place. But if you’d like a fresh, more challenging take on why anybody cares about ancient Egypt in the first place, talk to me.

Recent Publications

Photographing Tutankhamun (Bloomsbury, 2018)

Egypt: Lost Civilizations (Reaktion Books, 2017)

Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Unwrapping Ancient Egypt (Bloomsbury, 2014)

‘Shouldering the past’, History of Science, 2016 (academic article on photographs from the tomb of Tutankhamun)

‘Beautiful burials, beautiful skulls’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 2016 (academic article on aesthetics, race, and ancient Egyptian mummies)

‘Colonial visions’, Advances in Research – Museum Worlds, 2013 (academic article on the history of museums in Egypt, and the impact of colonialism on museum collections and displays)

Review of ‘Lost Cities of Ancient Egypt’, Times Literary Supplement, 2016 (sample of journalism).

Media Coverage
Appearances on BBC4 and in documentaries for Channel 5, Discovery, National Geographic, History Channel. Live and pre-recorded radio on BBC Radio 4 and other stations. Newspaper, magazine, website, and literary review journalism.
Country Focus
Egypt, Ancient Egypt, United Kingdom
Expertise by Geography
Middle East, United Kingdom, Western Europe
Expertise by Chronology
Ancient, 19th century, Modern, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Art & Architectural History, Colonialism, Libraries & Archives, Material Culture, Museums, Race, Science