Egyptology Research Paper + Podcast Analyzing Images of Violence

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Luiza Osorio G. Silva is an Assistant Professor of Art History, Archeology, and Visual Studies at UCI. Her research interests include ancient Egyptian kingship and monumentality, specifically the non-royal experience of kingship in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030-1650 BCE). She is also the Assistant Director of the Mastaba of Akhmerutnisut Documentation Project (Giza, Egypt) and an archaeologist for the Memphis-Kom el-Fakhry Archaeological Project (Memphis, Egypt) and the Petra Terraces Archaeological Project (Petra, Jordan) and is a member of the team working on the development of Kiosk. Lastly, as a Brazilian Egyptologist, Silva is committed to further developing Egyptological studies in Brazil and Portugal, as well as making the ancient world more accessible to diverse audiences. To that end, she currently co-hosts a podcast about ancient Egypt in Portuguese, titled “Três egiptólogues entram num bar.”

What is the assignment? 

After students have written a formal analysis of an image of violence, they are asked to write a research paper with a companion podcast:

Write a 2,000-word research paper about the image you chose for your formal analysis. The primary purpose of this second part of the project is for you to dive deeply into the image you are already familiar with in formal terms, now constructing an argument about how it fits into its historical and cultural contexts. Among other topics detailed below, you will think particularly about your image’s historicity or lack thereof. Think about how that image aims to communicate something (or somethings) specific, and how – without any other information on its context – it might be convincing in terms of what it means to communicate. After that, you will research the image’s specific historical and cultural contexts, including its potential audiences and functions, in order to discuss how we should in fact understand the image beyond what it might have sought to convey. In order to construct your argument about your image and its function(s), you will consult both primary and secondary sources. 

Your paper should include at least three illustrations, at least two of which should not focus on your primary image of focus. You are writing for an audience with background knowledge on ancient Egypt, so you do not have to explain basic Egyptological concepts such as periodizations or what a king means in the ancient Egyptian context. However, though communicating with a specialist audience, you still need to be clear about your own argument and your own evidence – not everyone with background knowledge on ancient Egypt will know the specifics of the specific images of violence from Sahure’s pyramid complex in the Fifth Dynasty, for instance. 

After writing your research paper, you will turn the argument developed in that paper for an academic audience into a short (10 minute) podcast episode made for a non-academic audience. Your podcast will need to include reference to images, and since podcasts are not a visual medium that will require going back to your formal analysis and thinking carefully about how to describe an image.

How does it work?

I really like this assignment because it takes students from describing an image, to constructing an argument about that image’s original context and function for an academic audience, to thinking about how to translate that argument to a non-academic audience. Additionally, describing an image out loud can be challenging, so part of the point is to challenge students in terms of their ability to describe images in an effective manner. I think this assignment gives students the opportunity to dive deeply into an image they are interested in, as well as think about how to apply what they learn from that image (and the class as a whole) to communicating about ancient images to distinct audiences. There’s a lot to consider in terms of function, historicity, audience, etc., and they need to think of a way to make those thoughts and discussions engaging for a non-specialist audience.

Why does this work?

This assignment works because it incorporates scaffolding to help students build from describing an image to making an argument about that image. It also gives students two very clear audiences to write to (academic, non-academic)  using different genres (research paper, podcast) and modes (written, spoken). 

Check out these resources for developing scaffolded communication assignments that incorporate multimodality: