Tea with the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt and the Modern Imagination

Tea with the Sphinx explores ancient Egypt as imagined by the West, from Napoleon’s invasion until the millennium.

Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 sparked what has come to be known as ‘Egyptomania’, an intense fascination for ancient Egypt that permeated the cultural imagination in the nascent nineteenth century and beyond. Since this moment, across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, subsequent waves of Egyptomania have seen the history and iconography of this ancient civilisation drawn upon for all varieties of purposes. 

The conference brings together established scholars and postgraduates from a variety of disciplines including History, Egyptology, Archaeology, English Literature, History of Art, Museum Studies and Media Studies.  Dr Chris Naunton, the Director of the Egypt Exploration Society and President of the International Association of Egyptologists, will give the keynote address.  The conference also includes magic lantern performance of nineteenth-century slides of Egypt from the University’s cultural collections, and a small exhibition of early twentieth-century Egyptian studio photography, curated by Dr Lucie Ryzova. 

• View the full programme here

This conference is supported by BRIHC, the Past and Present Society, The British Association for Victorian Studies and the British Association of Romantic Studies.