Katharina Zinn

My teaching and research interests lie in the areas of material culture and materiality, as well as heritage in its social and cultural aspects with special focus on museums and public engagement. I also cover identity and memory (historically and contemporary), religion, art and gender, using ancient Egypt as the civilisation which provides most of my case studies, and trace the modern reception of the past. I am also interested in literacy as social phenomenon.

I studied Library Science, followed by Egyptology, Media Science and Business at Leipzig University, Germany where I also did my PhD in Egyptology. In addition to the HE sector, I worked in libraries and museums in Germany, Egypt, USA and UK.

In 2006 I moved to the UK and taught Egyptology, archaeology and heritage at Cambridge University, Swansea University and UWTSD.

In addition to research and teaching, I have taken on several external roles. I am currently Chair of the Collection Committee of the Egypt Exploration Society and Member of the AHRC Review College.

Research interests

• Material Culture /Museology and Egyptology
• The Egyptian Collection of the Cyfarthfa Castle, Merthyr Tydfil (Wales) – Cooperation with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David
• Theoretically informed approaches to materiality and heritage
• Heritage and identity (tangible/intangible heritage, cultural heritage)
• Object biographies – Narratives of material culture
• Lost / forgotten / unloved objects
• Provenanced – unprovenanced objects
• Anthropology of the Past: Anthropology, Egyptology and Ancient China – comparative aspects of Ancient Civilisations:
• Art
• (Non-)Materiality, New Materialism
• Religion and Spirituality, Sacred Landscapes
• Gender
• Identity
• Sensuality
• FoodStuffs
• Transmission of Knowledge and Aspects of Memory
• Cultural Memory and Memory studies
• Literacy as a cultural phenomenon
• Libraries and Archives in Ancient Egypt
• Knowledge and Wisdom in Ancient Egypt