Salima ikram

Remy hiramoto
Kathlyn M. Cooney is an American Egyptologist and archaeologist.
Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA.

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Dr. Kara Cooney

Dr. Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA. Specializing in craft production, coffin studies, and economies in the ancient world, Cooney received her PhD in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University. In 2005, she was co-curator of Tutankhamunand the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Cooney produced a comparative archaeology television series, entitled Out of Egypt, which aired in 2009 on the Discovery Channel and is available online via Netflix and Amazon.

The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt is Cooney’s first trade book, and it benefits from her immense knowledge of Egypt’s ancient history to craft an illuminating biography of its least well-known female king. As an archaeologist who spent years at various excavations in Egypt, Cooney draws from the latest field research to fill in the gaps in the physical record of Hatshepsut. Published by Crown Publishing Group, the book releases on October 14, 2014.

Cooney’s current re

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Dr. Kara Cooney

Dr. Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Cooney’s research in coffin reuse, primarily focusing on the 21st 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. This project has taken her around the world over the span of five to six years to study and document more than 300 coffins in collections around the world, including Cairo, London, Paris, Berlin, and Vatican City. Her first trade book, The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt is an illuminating biography of its least well-known female king and was published in 2014 by Crown Publishing Group. Her latest book, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, was published in 2018 by National Geographic Press.

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Hello everyone,

I am so excited to bring you our first interview of 2024! This week I’m joined by Dr. Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptology at UCLA and author of several books, including The Woman Who Would Be King, which is the biography I relied on for the Hatshepsut episode of the podcast. She is also behind the popular substack

Ancient/Now

, which I definitely recommend checking out if you haven’t already!

This is a really fun and informative episode.

Kara Cooney

and I talk a lot about the possibility that Hatshepsut was manipulated by someone else to take the throne, we talk about why her books is a little scandalous to other Egyptologists, and we weigh the reasons why Hatshepsut is forgotten while Cleopatra and Nefertiti are not. It is a doozy and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it.