The Good Kings—Power in Ancient Egypt & Today
Dr. Kara Cooney, Egyptologist, UCLA
For this live Zoom event, Dr. Kara Cooney will be interviewed by Dr. Michelle Marlar to discuss her new book, The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt & the Modern World.
In a new era when democracies around the world are threatened or crumbling, best-selling author Kara Cooney turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs--Khufu, Senwosret III, Akenhaten, Ramses II, and Taharqa--to understand why many so often give up power to the few, and what it can mean for our future.As the first centralized political power on earth, the pharaohs and their process of divine kingship can tell us a lot about the world's politics, past and present. Every animal-headed god, every monumental temple, every pyramid, every tomb, offers extraordinary insight into a culture that combined deeply held religious beliefs with uniquely human schemes to justify a system in which one ruled over many. From Khufu, the man who built the Great Pyramid at Giza as testament to his authoritarian reign, and Taharqa, the last true pharaoh who worked to make Egypt great again, we discover a clear lens into understanding how power was earned, controlled, and manipulated in ancient times. And in mining the past, Cooney uncovers the reason why societies have so willingly chosen a dictator over democracy, time and time again.
About Dr. Cooney
Kathlyn M. (Kara) Cooney is an Egyptologist, archaeologist, associate professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at University of California, Los Angeles, and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Language and Cultures at UCLA. In addition to her scholarly work, she is known for hosting television shows on ancient Egypt on the Discovery Channel as well as for writing a popular-press book on the subject. She specializes in craft production, coffin studies, and economies in the ancient world.
Raised in Houston, she obtained her bachelor of arts in German and Humanities from the University of Texas in Austin in 1994. She was awarded a PhD in Near Eastern Studies in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Cooney was part of an archaeological team excavating at the artisans' village of Deir el Medina in Egypt, as well as Dahshur and various tombs at Thebes. In 2002 she was Kress Fellow at the National Gallery of Art and worked on the preparation of the Cairo Museum exhibition Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt. After a temporary one-year position at UCLA, she took a three-year postdoctoral teaching position at Stanford University, during which, in 2005, she acted as fellow curator for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She also worked for two years at the Getty Center before landing a tenure-track position at UCLA in 2009. Cooney's current research in coffin reuse, primarily focusing on the 20th Dynasty, is ongoing. Her research investigates the socioeconomic and political turmoil that have plagued the period, ultimately affecting funerary and burial practices in ancient Egypt. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
3 pm, Sunday, November 21, 2021
Tickets: $15
