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Explore ISAC Events in
February!
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ISAC Monthly Lecture with National Hellenic Museum
"Greek Immigration, Literature, and Identity in Egypt: Ancient and Modern"
Brian Muhs, PhD, ISAC, University of Chicago and Katherine Kelaidis, PhD, Director of Research and Content, NHM
Wednesday, February 4, 7pm-9pm CST
Breasted Hall and Online
Joint Lecture between ISAC and the National Hellenic Museum as part of the ISAC/NHM collaboration. Brian Muhs will discuss the history of Greek immigration to ancient Egypt in the first millennium BCE, and how Greek immigrants and their descendants used and promoted Greek language and literature. Egyptians also learned Greek, however, and brought an Egyptian voice to Greek literature that spread well beyond Egypt.
Katherine Kelaidis will turn from antiquity to the modern period, focusing on the poet C. P. Cavafy and the Greek community of early twentieth-century Alexandria. Writing from one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the modern world, Cavafy lived and worked at the intersection of Greek, Egyptian, British, and French cultural life. His poetry draws on Hellenistic history as well as the social and political realities of empire, migration, and decline that shaped Alexandria in his lifetime.
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ARCE-ISAC Joint Lecture
"A Festival to Re-Member: Celebrating the Mysteries of Osiris in Ancient Egypt"
Saturday, February 7, 5pm CST
Foy Scalf, PhD, Director of the ISAC Data Research Center and Research Archives Library
Breasted Hall and Online
Each year in the month of Khoiak, Egyptians across the Nile Valley reenacted the death, dismemberment, and restoration of Osiris: the god whose fate defined both divine kingship and human mortality. Through elaborate rituals of processions, liturgies, and the making of effigies that germinated with new life the festival brought hidden temple mysteries into the public sphere, allowing people to “re-member” Osiris and affirm a fertile agricultural crop, hopes for their own afterlife, and cosmic renewal. This lecture explores how the Mysteries of Osiris unfolded across Egypt, how they drew communities into the sacred drama of death and rebirth, and why they became one of the most enduring and influential religious celebrations of the ancient world.
This lecture is organized by ARCE Chicago, a chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt.
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K-12 Teacher Workshop"Learn ancient Sumerian like a Babylonian"
Monday, February 16, 4pm–5pm CST
OnlineJoin us for a one-hour session where we will focus on the evidence for how children learned to read and write in the ancient world, specifically how children who were Akkadian-speakers learned to read and write Sumerian.
Instructors: Tasha Vorderstrasse, PhD, Manager, Continuing Education Program, and Madeleine Roberts-Ganim, Youth and Family Program Coordinator
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ISAC Youth and Family
"At the Museum - Junior Archaeology Hosted at the National Hellenic Museum"
Saturday, February 21, 1pm–2pm CST
National Hellenic Museum Students become junior archaeologists in this hands-on activity, exploring artifacts such as an abacus, scrolls, and a Pythagoras cup! Young explorers are invited to step into the role of an archaeologist through a hands-on activity. Children will get to handle objects ranging from pottery to mysterious objects from long ago. This interactive activity encourages observation and critical thinking in a supportive environment where kids can learn by doing.
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ISAC Youth and Family
"From Sistrums to Saxophones: Music Through the Ages"
Sunday, February 22, 12:30pm–2:30pm CST ISAC Museum
In this youth workshop, students will learn about ancient instruments, explore modern music practices, and make instruments of their own! Children will connect their modern music experiences to ancient sources, explore the artifacts at the ISAC Museum, experiment with hands-on materials to build instruments, and compose music.
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ISAC Online Class
"Archaeology of Hoards in the Levant"
Tuesdays, February 24-March 17, 5pm-7pm CST
Instructors: Ashley Arico (Art Institute); Eric Cline (George Washington University), Brian Muhs, Kiersten Neumann, and Tasha Vorderstrasse (ISAC)
In connection with the ISAC Museum special exhibition Megiddo: A City Unearthed, A Past Imagined, this class focuses on some of the most exciting finds made by archaeologists exploring the Late Bronze Age of the Southern Levant: hoards of precious objects. Ranging from gold to ivory to stone, these rich finds demonstrate the connections between not only different parts of the Levant but also links to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. This class also includes two in-person tours by Kiersten Neumann and Ashley Arico.
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Friends of ASOR present a free webinar on February 18 at 7:00 pm EST, presented by Carl Walsh. Most people would not conceive of any connection between the works of the master French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and the art of ancient Egypt. The two certainly present radically different bodily aesthetics, divorced by vast temporal and cultural contexts. How then, can we see them as meaningfully related? This is one of the key questions framing our current exhibition "Rodin’s Egypt," now on display at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, in collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris, until March 15, 2026. The show explores Rodin’s admiration for the art of ancient Egypt and how he engaged and responded to the Egyptian antiquities he amassed over the course of his life. For more details and registration, please visit here.
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