Dr Christina Riggs
| Job Title | Contact | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Lecturer in Art History |
C dot Riggs at uea dot ac dot uk
Tel: +44 (0)1603 59 3825 |
Sainsbury Centre 0.28 |
Biography
Dr Riggs is a specialist in ancient Egyptian art, with a background in the art and archaeology of both ancient Egypt and the Classical world. She is interested in critical histories of Egyptology, the collection and interpretation of Egyptian antiquities, and museum studies (museology). Her research on Egyptian art addresses questions issues related to material culture studies, the body, funerary practices, and the shaping of collective memory through the re-use, copying or adaptation of earlier works of art.
Career
Dr Riggs joined the School in 2007. She was previously the curator in charge of the Egyptian collection at the Manchester Museum, which has the fifth-largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the UK. She has also worked at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and taught at Oxford University and the University of Manchester.
Academic Background
B.A. Archaeology; Brown University 1993
M.A. Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and Art; University of California-Berkeley 1995
DPhil. Oriental Studies (Egyptology); Oxford University 2001Key Research Interests
The body in ancient Egyptian art
Funerary practices in Roman Egypt
Museums, collecting, cultural heritage
Current Research Projects
1. Unwrapping Ancient Egypt: The Shroud, the Secret, and the Sacred
This AHRC-funded project looks at the use of textile wrappings in ancient Egypt - and their unwrapping in archaeology, the medical sciences, and the popular imagination. In addition to human and animal mummies, wrapping was an integral part of statue worship in ancient Egypt and a number of other practices related to ideas of secrecy and the sacred. Riggs delivered her work at the Evans-Pritchard Lectures at All Souls College in spring 2012.
2. Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt
Riggs is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Published in June 2012, the Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt brings together more than 40 specialists, with 45 chapters on the culture, religion, archaeology, and visual arts of Egypt under the Roman Empire. The Oxford Handbooks are a series of comprehensive reference books aimed at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Teaching Interests
- Ancient Egyptian art
- Artistic interaction in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt
- Gender and the body
- Museum studies and cultural heritage
Research supervision
Interested in supervising research students in all areas of ancient Egyptian and classical art and archaeology, including topics related to histories of the disciplines, collecting, museums, and museum practice.
Examples of modules taught
- ART-2Z13 Displaying the Past
- ART-3Y28 Cleopatra’s Egypt
- ART-MA67 Unwrapping Ancient Egypt: Mummies, Museums, and Mysteries in the European Imagination
Article
Riggs, Christina (2012) Ethnicity. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology.
Hardwick, Tom and Riggs, Christina (2010) The king as a falcon: A "lost" statue of Thutmose III rediscovered and reunited. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologisches Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 66. ISSN 0342-1279
Riggs, Christina (2010) Body. UCLA Encylopedia of Egyptology.
Riggs, Christina (2010) Funerary Rituals. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology.
Riggs, Christina (2009) Lions, pylons, and feet: A small-scale linen shroud in the Bolton Museum and Art Gallery. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 95. pp. 249-54.
Riggs, Christina (2006) Archaism and Artistic Sources in Roman Egypt: The Coffins of the Soter Family and the Temple of Deir el-Medina. Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale, 106. pp. 315-332.
Riggs, Christina and M. A. Stadler, (2003) The burial of Ta-sheret-hor-udja: A shroud and its Demotic inscriptions in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA 54.993). Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt, 40. pp. 69-87.
Riggs, Christina (2002) Facing the Dead: Recent Research on the Funerary Art of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. American Journal of Archaeology, 106 (1). pp. 85-101.
Riggs, Christina and John Baines, (2001) Archaism and Kingship: A Late Royal Statue and its Early Dynastic Model. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 87. pp. 103-118.
Book Section
Riggs, Christina (2013) Greco-Roman Egypt. In: World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: A Characterization. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 115-21.
Riggs, Christina (2012) Portraits, Prestige, Piety: Images of Women in Roman Egypt. In: A Companion to Women in the Ancient World. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 423-36.
Riggs, Christina (2010) Ancient Egypt in the Museum: Concepts and Constructions. In: A Companion to Ancient Egypt, vol. II. Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 1129-53. ISBN 978-1405155984
Riggs, Christina (2008) Gilding the lily: Shrouds, sculpture, and the representation of women in Ptolemaic and early Roman Egypt. In: Egypt and Beyond: Essays Presented to Leonard H. Lesko. Providence, RI: Brown University, pp. 285-304. ISBN 0980206502
Book
Riggs, Christina (2012) The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957145-1
Riggs, Christina (2005) The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt: Art, Identity, and Funerary Religion (Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation). Oxford University Press, p. 334. ISBN 019927665X
External Activities and Indicators of Esteem
- Senior Editor, Oxford Research Reviews (Oxford University Press)
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
- Evans-Pritchard Lecturer, All Souls College, Oxford (Trinity Term 2012)
Administrative Posts/Responsibilities
- Director of Postgraduate Admissions
- Director of Postgraduate Teaching
- Senior Tutor
- Course Director, MA in Museum Studies
- Course Director, BA in History of Art with Gallery and Museum Studies
