Dartmouth on Location in Cairo

Egypt Through the Ages

Grand Egyptian Museum exhibit
In person
11:00 am - 9:00 pm
The Grand Egyptian Museum and The Hyatt Regency Cairo West Hotel
Register Now

Join us for an incredible day on Saturday, January 23, for a Dartmouth event in Cairo at the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum, featuring talks by Susan Ackerman, the Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion, Emerita and Jonathan Smolin, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Director of the Dartmouth Initiative for Middle East Exchange (DIMEX). 

The day begins with a guided tour of the Grand Egyptian Museum, led by a local expert guide, followed by time to explore the museum's galleries independently. From there, the group will travel to the Hyatt Regency Cairo West for an evening reception, followed by presentations from each speaker, and a buffet dinner. 

Susan Ackerman will speak on the discovery at Wadi el-Hol, near Luxor, of inscriptions widely recognized as the oldest known alphabetic writing in the world. Jonathan Smolin will draw on his recent book, The Politics of Melodrama: The Cultural and Political Lives of Ihsan Abdel Kouddous and Gamal Abdel Nasser, to explore the cultural and political currents that shaped Egypt under Nasser. 

Program: 
11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Registration opens at the Hyatt Regency Cairo West Hotel, and boxed lunches are available for pick-up 
12:00 – 12:45 pm: Travel by motorcoach to the Grand Egyptian Museum
1:00 – 2:30 pm: Guided tour of the Grand Egyptian Museum 
2:30 – 4:15 pm: Free time to explore the Grand Egyptian Museum 
4:30 – 5:15 pm: Travel by motorcoach to the Hyatt Regency Cairo West Hotel 
5:30 – 6:30 pm: Reception with appetizers and bar serving beer, wine, and soft drinks (two drinks included per person) 
6:30 – 7:30 pm: Lectures by Susan Ackerman and Jonathan Smolin with Q&A 
7:30 – 8:30 pm: Dinner 

Pricing: 
Museum + Reception Ticket: $125 
Reception Only Ticket (includes reception, talk, and dinner): $50 
Register Now!

Location: 
Grand Egyptian Museum 
Directions 

Hyatt Regency Cairo West Hotel 
Directions 

Susan Ackerman

Susan Ackerman '80

Preston H. Kelsey Professor in Religion Emerita

Susan Ackerman joined the Religion Department in 1990 after teaching at the University of Arizona and at Winthrop College in South Carolina. She is a specialist in the religion of ancient Israel and the religions of Israel's neighbors (Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan), an interest she first developed as an undergraduate religion major at Dartmouth (A.B., 1980) and continued to explore in graduate school at Harvard (M.T.S., 1982; Ph.D., 1987).

Her publications include multiple articles and six books, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah (Scholars Press, 1992); Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel (Doubleday, 1998); When Heroes Love: The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David (Columbia University Press, 2005); Women and the Religion of Ancient Israel (Yale University Press, 2022); Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them (Eerdmans, 2022); and Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, and Mortality: Women's Life-Cycle Rituals in Ancient Israel (Oxford University Press, 2025).

Ackerman retired from the Dartmouth faculty in 2024.

Jonathan Smolin

Jonathan Smolin

Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Affiliate of Jewish Studies

Jonathan Smolin is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Director of the Dartmouth Initiative for Middle East Exchange (DIMEX). He has taught at Dartmouth since 2005 and researches the intersections between politics and popular culture in the modern Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Smolin has authored books that trace the histories and politics of several MENA nations through popular entertainment media and fiction, and he has translated five Arabic novels into English. Professor Smolin teaches about the Middle East from multiple perspectives and a wide array of sources, from classical texts to social media, approaching the region as a site of nuance and complexity.