Kathlyn M. (Kara) Cooney is an Egyptologist, archaeologist, associate professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Language and Cultures at UCLA. As well as for 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 specialises 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 2002 by Johns Hopkins University for Near Eastern Studies. She 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.
Television
She hosted two Discovery Channel documentary series: Out of Egypt, first aired in August 2009, and Egypt's Lost Queen, which also featured Dr. Zahi Hawass.
Articles
“Private Sector Tomb Robbery and Funerary Arts Reuse according to West Theban Documentation,” in: Deir el-Medina Studies, Helsinki June 24-29, 2009 Proceedings, J. Toivari-Viitala, T. Vartiainen, S. Uvanto, eds. (Finland 2014): 16-28.
“Where does the Masculine Begin and the Feminine End? The Merging of the Two Genders in Egyptian Coffins during the Ramesside Period,” in: Ehrenmord und Emanzipation: Die Geschlechterfrage in Ritualen von Parallelgesellschaften, Geschlecht–Symbol–Religion series, B. Heininger, ed., LIT Verlag (Münster).
“Scarab,” UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (Los Angeles).
“The Functional Materialism of Death: A Case Study of Funerary Material in the Ramesside Period,” in: Das Heilige und die Ware, IBAES VII, M. Fitzenreiter, ed., Golden House Publications (London).
“An Informal Workshop: Textual Evidence for Private Funerary Art Production in the Ramesside Period,” in: Living and Writing in Deir el Medine: Socio-historical Embodiment of Deir el Medine Texts, Aegyptiaca Helvetica series 19, Andreas Dorn and Tobias Hoffmann, eds. (Basel): 43-56.
“Scarabs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Part I: Intimate Protection or Distributed Propaganda? Scarabs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,” co-authored with Johnna Tyrrell, PalArch, Netherlands Scientific Journal 4, 1 (October): 1-13.
“Scarabs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Part II: Catalogue of Scarabs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,” co-authored with Johnna Tyrrell, PalArch, Netherlands Scientific Journal 4, 1 (October): 15-98.
Changing Burial Practices at the End of the New Kingdom: Defensive Adaptations in Tomb Commissions, Coffin Commissions, Coffin Decoration, and Mummification, in: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, JARCE 47 (2011), 3-44.
“Apprenticeship and Figured Ostraca from the Ancient Egyptian Village of Deir el-Medina,” in: Archaeology and Apprenticeship: Body Knowledge, Identity, and Communities of Practice, W. Wendrich, ed., University of Arizona Press (Tucson), 145-170.
“Objectifying the Body: The Increased Value of the Ancient Egyptian Mummy during the Socioeconomic Crisis of Dynasty Twenty-One,” in: J. Papadopoulos and G. Urton, eds., The Construction of Value in the Ancient World, Cotsen Institute Press (Los Angeles): 139-159.
Review of Lynn Meskell’s Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt, American Journal of Archaeology 107 (2003).
The Production of Private Ramesside Tombs within the West Theban Funerary Economy
Gender Transformation in Death: A Case Study of Coffins from Ramesside Period Egypt
Labour, in The Egyptian World, Toby Wilkinson, ed.
The Daily Offering Meal in the Ritual of Amenhotep I: An Instance of the Local Adaptation of Cult Liturgy (co-authored with J. Brett McClain)
Egyptology and Afrocentrism (in German), in: Ma’at Archäologie Ägyptens, No. 2 (2005), 6-11.
The Woman Who Would Be King, in Lapham’s Quarterly, 13 August 2014.
“The Edifice of Taharqa: Ritual Function and the Role of the King,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 37: 15-47.
Undergraduate
Women and Power in Ancient World (Ancient Near East 15)
Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, Predynastic Period to New Kingdom (Ancient Near East/Art History CM101A)
Ancient Egyptian Civilization (Ancient Near East/History M103A)
Graduate
Late Egyptian (Ancient Near East 210)
Seminar: Ancient Egypt (Ancient Near East 220)
Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, Predynastic Period to New Kingdom (Ancient Near East C267A)
Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, New Kingdom to Greco-Roman Period (Ancient Near East C267B)
Books
Cooney, Kara (19 January 2015). The Woman Who Would be King. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-78074-651-7.
Cooney, Kathlyn M. (2007). The Cost of Death: The Social and Economic Value of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Art in the Ramesside Period. Egyptologische Uitgaven. 22. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. ISBN 978-90-6258-222-8.
Personal
Cooney's paternal grandparents were from County Cork in Ireland. She is named after her Irish-Protestant grandmother Kathlyn Mary, who was disowned by her family for marrying her Irish-Catholic grandfather James. Her mother is Italian, her grandmother was from the Abruzzi region, and her grandfather from Naples. She uses the name Kathlyn for her scholarly work, and her nickname Kara for professional but non-academic work.
