UofM's Egyptian Institute Will Host Nov. 17 Lecture on Egyptology in Nazi Germany

November 11, 2015 - The Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology and the Department of History at the University of Memphis, in association with the Tennessee Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, will co-host 10th annual William J. Murnane Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the University Center Fountain View Suite (room 350). Dr. Thomas Schneider, professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia, will present at 7 p.m. A reception will precede the lecture at 6:15 p.m.

Both events are free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Zach Curlin garage adjacent to the University Center.

Schneider will be speaking on the reception of Egyptology under the Third Reich as an example of how tenets of academic and professional integrity might succumb to political pressure. His lecture will provide an overview of Egyptologists working in Germany through the end of the World War II. This biographical survey will include persecuted emigrants as well as scholars who actively aligned themselves with the new regime and attempted to subvert Egyptology to the doctrines of National Socialism.

Schneider earned his master's degree and doctorate in Egyptology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. An internationally known scholar, he has held professorships and research positions at the University of Vienna, University of Heidelberg, New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Basel, and the University of Wales, Swansea, where he also served as chair in Egyptology. Schneider has published widely in his main areas of research – Egyptian interconnections with the Levant and the Near East, and ancient Egyptian history and chronology - and is currently completing a monograph on the history of Egyptology in Nazi Germany.

For more information, call Dr. Joshua Roberson at 678.3895 or the IEAA at 678.2555.

Contact: Dr. Joshua Roberson
901.678.3895