Lorelei H. Corcoran, Ph.D.

Professor of Art History

Ph.D., University of Chicago,
Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, 1988

Address:
Department of Art and Design
University of Memphis
200 Art and Communication Bldg.
Memphis, TN 38152-3140

E-mail:
lcorcorn@memphis.edu

Telephone:
901.678.2555

Dr. Corcoran is Professor of Art History and a member of the Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology at the University of Memphis. She is graduate advisor to the M.A. program in Art History with a concentration in Egyptian art and archaeology.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Iconography of the funerary arts of ancient Egypt, specializing in Roman period; ancient Egyptian portraiture; social context of imagery in ancient Egyptian culture; portrait mummies; epigraphy

PUBLICATIONS:

Monographs:

• Herakleides. A Portrait Mummy from Roman Egypt, with Marie Svoboda, 2010.
• Portrait Mummies from Roman Egypt (I-IV Centuries A.D.): with a Catalog of Portrait Mummies in Egyptian Museums, University of Chicago, Oriental Institute, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, No. 56, 1995.
• Dissertation: Portrait Mummies from Roman Egypt. University of Chicago, 1988.

Select Articles and Exhibitions:

• “'They Leave behind Them Portraits of Their Wealth, Not Themselves’: Aspects of Self-Presentation in the Dress of the Deceased in Mummy Portraits and Portrait Mummies from Roman Egypt.” In Dress in Mediterranean Antiquity: Greeks, Romans, Jews, Christians, Alicia J. Batten and Kelley Olson, eds. Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2021.
• "The Mummy, Cartonnage Set and Coffin of Irtwirw." In Egyptian Museum Collections around the World, M. Eldamaty and M. Trad, eds., Supreme Council of Antiquities, Cairo, 2002.
• "Masks." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, D. Redford, ed., Oxford University Press, London and New York, 2001.
• "A Case for Narrativity: Gilt Stucco Mummy Cover in the Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, inv. 27808." In Gold of Praise: Studies in Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, No. 58, E. Teeter and J.A. Larson, eds., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999.
• Africa's Egypt , an exhibition curated for the Pink Palace Museum, Memphis, TN, 1999.
• "Mysticism and the Mummy Portraits." In Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt, M. Bierbrier, ed., British Museum Press, London, 1997.
• "Painted Funerary Shroud." In Africa: the Art of a Continent, T. Phillips, ed., Prestel, Munich, 1995.
• "Evidence for the Survival of Pharaonic Religion in Roman Egypt." In Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt, II/18, H. Temporini and W. Haase, eds., Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1995.
• "A Cult Function for the So-called Faiyum Portraits?" In Life in a Multi-Cultural Society: Egypt from Cambyses to Constantine and Beyond, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, no. 52, J. Johnson, ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992.
• "Exploring the Archaeological Metaphor: The Egypt of Freud's Imagination." In The Annual of Psychoanalysis, no. 19, 1991.
• Another Egypt: Coptic Christians at Thebes (7th-8th Centuries A.D.), an exhibition curated for the The Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1990-1991. Co-curated with Terry Wilfong.
• "The Roman Period." In Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, S. D'Auria, P. Lacovara and C. Roehrig, eds., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988.
• "Hawara Portrait Mummy no. 4" In Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 71, 1985.