Kara Cooney
{{short description|American egyptologist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kara Cooney
| image = File:Dr Kara Cooney presenting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 2014.JPG
| caption = Kara Cooney presenting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, June 2014
| birth_name = Kathlyn Cooney
| alma_mater = {{plainlist|
}}
| occupation = Egyptologist and Assistant Professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA
| website = {{URL|http://karacooney.squarespace.com/}}
}}
Kathlyn M. (Kara) Cooney is an American Egyptologist and archaeologist. She is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles specializing in craft production, coffin studies, and economies in the ancient world, particularly the Ramesside era (Nineteenth through Twentieth Dynasties) and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Language and Cultures at UCLA.{{citation | url = http://www.nelc.ucla.edu/people/faculty/2-uncategorised/139-kathryn-cooney.html | title = Kathlyn Cooney | publisher = UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures | access-date = 2015-10-24 }}. {{citation | url = http://nelc.ucla.edu/about/ | title = Kathlyn Cooney | publisher = Department of Near Eastern Language and Cultures at UCLA | access-date = 2016-09-24 }}.{{citation | url = http://nelc.ucla.edu/person/kara-cooney/ | title = Kathlyn Cooney | publisher = UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures | access-date = 2016-09-24 }}. {{citation | url = https://ucla.academia.edu/KathlynCooney | title = Kathlyn Cooney | publisher = UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures | access-date = 2015-10-24 }}. {{Cite episode |title= Sety, Thutmose, and the Royal Coffins (feat. Prof. Kara Cooney)|episode-link= |url= https://www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com/sety-thutmose-and-the-royal-coffins-feat-prof-kara-cooney/|access-date= 10 December 2024 |series= The History of Egypt Podcast|series-link= |first=Dominic |last=Perry |network= |station= |date=22 November 2024 |season= |series-no= |number= |minutes= |time= |transcript= |transcript-url= |quote= |trans-quote= |via= }}
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.
Education and career
Raised in Houston, she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in German and Humanities from the University of Texas at 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.{{citation
| url = http://nelc.ucla.edu/person/kara-cooney/
| title = Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney
| publisher = Academia UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
| access-date = 2016-09-24
}}.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.
Television
She hosted two Discovery Channel documentary series: Out of Egypt,{{cite book
| author = Vincent Terrace
| title = The Year in Television, 2009: A Catalog of New and Continuing Series, Miniseries, Specials and TV Movies
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GoKJZanh6TsC&pg=PA127
| date = 3 September 2010
| publisher = McFarland
| isbn = 978-0-7864-5644-4
| pages = 127–
| url = http://dailybruin.com/2009/09/20/out-egypt-and-screen/
| newspaper = Daily Bruin
| title = Out of Egypt and onto the screen
| first = Paige
| last = Parker
| date = September 20, 2009
}}. first aired in August 2009,{{citation
| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-aug-24-et-ucla-prof24-story.html
| newspaper = Los Angeles Times
| title = UCLA professor Kara Cooney hosts 'Out of Egypt' on Discovery Channel
| date = August 24, 2009
| first = Juliette
| last = Funes
}}. and Egypt's Lost Queen,{{citation
| url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-190117014.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181119140032/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-190117014.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = November 19, 2018
| title = Kara Cooney digs up the dirt; An expert on Hatshepsut gives us the inside scoop
| magazine = Curve
| date = December 1, 2008
| first = Colleen M.
| last = Lee
}}. which also featured Zahi Hawass.
Books
- {{cite book|first=Kathlyn M.|last=Cooney|title=The Cost of Death: The Social and Economic Value of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Art in the Ramesside Period|year=2007|series=Egyptologische Uitgaven|volume=22|publisher=Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten|location=Leiden|isbn=978-90-6258-222-8}}{{citation
|last = Exell
|first = Karen
|url = http://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/08_Exell.pdf
|title = The Cost of Death: The Social and Economic Value of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Art in the Ramesside Period
|department = Book Reviews
|journal = American Journal of Archaeology
|volume = 114
|issue = 1
|date = January 2010
|doi = 10.3764/ajaonline114.1.Exell
|access-date = 2011-08-04
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120328125436/http://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/08_Exell.pdf
|archive-date = 2012-03-28
|url-status = dead
}}
- {{cite book|first=Kara|last=Cooney|title=The Woman Who Would be King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3VMQBwAAQBAJ|publisher=Oneworld Publications|year=2015|isbn=978-1-78074-651-7}}{{citation
| url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kara-cooney/the-woman-who-would-be-king/
| title = The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt
| journal = Kirkus Reviews
| date = August 15, 2014
}}{{citation|title=The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-307-95676-7|journal=Publishers Weekly|access-date=2015-10-24|department=Nonfiction Book Review}}{{citation|last=Donoghue|first=Steve|title=Book Review: The Woman Who Would Be King|url=http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/book-review-the-woman-who-would-be-king/|journal=Open Letters Monthly|year=2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224051257/http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/book-review-the-woman-who-would-be-king/|access-date=2015-10-25|archive-date=2016-12-24|url-status=dead}}{{citation|last=Sarll|first=Alex|title=Book review: The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise To Power In Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney|date=February 20, 2015|url=https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/books-reviews/485541/book-review-woman-king-hatshepsuts-rise-power-ancient-egypt-kara-cooney/|newspaper=The Press and Journal}}
- {{Cite book|last=Cooney|first=Kara|title=When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt|publisher=National Geographic|year=2018|isbn=978-1-4262-1977-1|location=Washington, D.C.}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kara-cooney/when-women-ruled-the-world/|title=WHEN WOMEN RULED THE WORLD {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}}
- {{Cite book|last=Cooney|first=Kara|title=The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World|publisher=National Geographic|year=2021|isbn=9781426221965}}
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 Cooney’s Irish-Catholic grandfather James.
Her mother is Italian, her grandmother was from the Abruzzi region, and her grandfather from Naples.{{cite web
| url = http://www.public-republic.net/dr-kara-cooney-and-a-few-more-words-about-ancient-egypt.php
| title = Dr. Kara Cooney and a Few More Words About Ancient Egypt • Public Republic
| publisher = Public-republic.net
| access-date = 2011-08-04
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724022550/http://www.public-republic.net/dr-kara-cooney-and-a-few-more-words-about-ancient-egypt.php/
| archive-date = 2011-07-24
| url-status = dead
}} She uses the name Kathlyn for her scholarly work, and her nickname Kara for professional but non-academic work.{{citation
| title = The Unruly PhD: Doubts, Detours, Departures, and Other Success Stories
| first = Rebecca
| last = Peabody
| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan (St. Martin's Press)
| year = 2014
| isbn = 978-1-137-31946-3
| contribution = Interview: Kathlyn "Kara" Cooney
| pages = 41–53
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-F6oBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41
}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100124042146/http://heritage-key.com/world/heritage-key-talks-out-egypts-dr-kara-cooney Interview with Kara Cooney]
- {{IMDb name|id=1582097|name=Kara Cooney}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooney, Kara}}
Category:American Egyptologists
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American expatriates in Egypt
Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni
Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty