Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Telling the Story with Artifacts (in-person)

In-Person Event, Open to All, $15

Join Lifetime Learning for an exploration of the dynamic relationship between ancient Egypt and Nubia, inspired by an exhibition at the University of Virginia’s Fralin Museum: The World Between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa. Professor of Art History Anastasia Dakouri-Hild re-examines how Egypt’s cultural identity was deeply rooted in Africa, moving beyond geography to examine Egypt and Nubia and their intersections through material and visual culture.

Guided by insights from Professor Adria LaViolette, Director of Interdisciplinary Archaeology, the program draws on key artifacts to illuminate the complex interactions between these civilizations across millennia—from prehistory (ca. 3800 BCE) to the era of pharaonic Meroe (350 CE). Together, we will tour this groundbreaking exhibition and hear from these two UVA knowledge experts.

Anastasia Dakouri-Hild, Professor of Art History, Department of Art, Department of Classics, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Anastasia Dakouri-Hild has a combined field and curatorial background in ancient art and archaeology. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge, funded by a merit scholarship at Christ's College. She has taught Aegean and Near Eastern art and archaeology at the University of Virginia since 2006. She has been the recipient of the Michael Ventris Award for Mycenaean Studies (University of London), an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship (ACLS), the award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology (Archaeological Institute of America), and a Leonard A. Lauder visiting senior fellowship (National Gallery of Art). A National Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America (nomination-based), she was appointed more recently to the national Homer A. and Dorothy B. Thompson Lectureship (2024-2025). Anastasia has published four volumes (Public Archaeologies of the Ancient Mediterranean, 2017; Staging Death: Funerary Performance, Architecture and Landscape in the Ancient Mediterranean, 2016; Beyond Illustration: 2D and 3D Technologies as Tools for Discovery in Archaeology, 2008; and Autochthon: Papers Presented to O.T.P.K. Dickinson on the Occasion of his Retirement, 2005), and over 40 articles in Aegean prehistory. She is preparing the publication of the prehistoric cemeteries of Thebes in Greece (The Theban Cemeteries Republication Project: Funerary Topography, Architecture and Finds), the results of a reconnaissance intensive survey at ancient Aphidna near Athens, Greece, and the old palace of Mycenaean Thebes (House of Kadmos). She is the curator of the ongoing exhibition The World in Between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa, a UVA/CCGI Global Programs of Distinction grant recipient. She is currently planning an international conference in February 2026 centered on the exhibition themes, as well as the publication catalog.

Adria LaViolette, Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Program, Department of Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Adria LaViolette is an Africanist archaeologist with an interest in the inner articulations and transformations of medium-and large-scale societies over the last two millennia. Her PhD research was an ethnoarchaeological study focusing on blacksmiths, potters, and masons in contemporary Jenne, Mali, in the context of long-term traditions of such specializations in the Inland Niger Delta. As a faculty member in archaeology at the University of Dar es Salaam, 1987-89, she began doing survey and excavation on Swahili archaeological sites along the mainland Tanzanian coast. She also began research on Pemba Island, Tanzania, at the 15th-16th-century CE fortified site of Mkama Ndume (Pujini), a site at the intersection of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and historical research. With Jeff Fleisher and Bertram Mapunda, she co-directed a project in northern Pemba at the Swahili sites of Chwaka and Tumbe and smaller village sites, which explored household organization, regional political economy, the changing practice of Islam, the interface of domestic economy and long-distance trade networks with African mainland and Indian Ocean societies, and changes related to ongoing processes of urbanism. Publication of that project is ongoing. She co-directed a project with Neil Norman set on Unguja Island, Zanzibar, at a pair of Portuguese domestic/ agricultural/ warehouse settlements, Fukuchani and Mvuleni, to explore Portuguese/Swahili interactions in the 16th-17th centuries. Her current project with Rhiannon Stephens and others focuses on the history and archaeology of Swahili women’s roles since the first millennium CE. She has made a research priority the integration of village-dwelling and non-elite coastal peoples into Swahili historiography. She maintains long-term collaborations with colleagues in Tanzania and contributes to local heritage development efforts.

Melissa Jordan Love, Carol R. Angle Academic Curator, Education Department, The Fralin Museum of Art, and Affiliated Faculty, Department of Art, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia

Melissa Jordan Love is the Carol R. Angle Academic Curator at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, where she has overseen the Education department since 2012. Love's career as an architectural historian, educator, and museum curator spans more than 20 years.

Love teaches a combination of museum studies, class and internship program, and developed a student-curated exhibition as part of the class experience, which is organized annually by the Fralin’s student interns under Love’s guidance. As part of her outreach efforts, Love has developed a workshop in partnership with the UVA School of Medicine. This workshop, Clinician’s Eye, uses art analysis to help medical students improve their observational and diagnostic skills.

Love earned a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University, with a specialty in medieval art and architecture and Oceanic art. Love earned a bachelor's degree at Wellesley College.

She previously held curatorial positions at the Worcester Art Museum, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum, and the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in her native Wyoming, where she worked with objects once owned by Butch Cassidy.

Age Requirement: This program is open to participants who are 18 years of age or older.

Dietary Needs: Lifetime Learning will be providing light refreshments. Please alert John Pilat to any food allergies by emailing him at [email protected].

Inclement Weather: In case of inclement weather, Lifetime Learning will notify you of a program cancellation 24 hours in advance.

Parking and Maps: Lifetime Learning has arranged for you to park at the Culbreth Road Parking Garage free of charge. The garage is a short walk to the museum. The address is: 130 Culbreth Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903

Once parked, walk down Culbreth Road and turn right on Rugby Road. After about 500 ft, the Fralin Museum will be on your right. The Museum’s address is 155 Rugby Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903. View parking map at: https://engagement.virginia.edu/learn/20260216-fralin

The Fralin Museum’s other parking options are located here: https://uvafralinartmuseum.virginia.edu/about/visit-us

Cancellation Policy: Participants may cancel their registration for this One-Day UVA program by emailing John Pilat at [email protected]. John will send an email notification confirming your cancellation.

Refund Policy: If Lifetime Learning (via John) receives your cancellation email before midnight on February 4th, 2026, you will receive a refund of 50% of your registration fee.

If Lifetime Learning (via John) receives your cancellation email after midnight on February 5th, 2026, no refund will be issued.

Tickets Are Not Transferable: Tickets may not be transferred to another person (no substitutions).

This program is in partnership with in the Office of Engagement and the .

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