Symposium 2026 - Weekend Agenda
Details of the 2026 SSEA Weekend are being posted as they become available. All events and sessions take place at the Humber College Downtown Campus, 4th floor, 59 Hayden St, Toronto. The event is also available online.
Only one ticket is necessary to enjoy all three days of Egyptology. Enrol for the whole weekend via our Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ssea-50th-annual-symposium-feasts-and-festivals-in-ancient-egypt-tickets-1998381422630
SCHEDULE: COLLOQUIUM/SYMPOSIUM 2026
FRIDAY NOV. 6: COLLOQUIUM DAY 1
Humber Polytechnic, 59 Hayden St., 4th Floor
9:00−9:10 Welcome and Intro
9:10−9:40 The Blind Harpist and the Question of Eunuchism in Ancient Egypt
Kelly-Anne Diamond (Villanova University)
9:40−10:10 Masculinity at work at Deir el-Medîna
(via Zoom) Deborah Sweeney (Tel Aviv University)
10:10−10:40 Fashioning the Dead Across the Nile Valley: Shared Practices of Funerary Adornment of the 4th Millennium
Maryan Ragheb (UCLA)
BREAK
11:00−11:30 Topographic personifications in ancient Egypt as a religious and cultural phenomenon
(via Zoom) Illia Semenenko (Charles University, Prague)
11:30−12:00 Incubation rituals in pre-Ptolemaic Egypt?
Salvatore Bellavia (Università di Messina)
LUNCH
1:00−1:30 Visualizing Royal Space: Iconographic Evidence for Palatial Architecture in the Amarna Tombs
Lianna Sternklar (University of Toronto)
1:30−2:00 Text and Archaeology in Memphis During the Late Middle Kingdom Transition: Reassessing the Annals of Amenemhat II
(via Zoom) Ruijie Yao (University of Missouri-Columbia)
2:00−2:30 Huddling “inside the arms of his father, inside the arms of Atum”: The Function and Meaning of a Recurring Phrase in the Pyramid Texts
Cloé Caron (Université de Québec à Montréal)
BREAK
2:45−3:15 From Sepulcher to Shrine: The Mastaba of Izi at Tell Edfu
Emilie Sarrazin (Yale University)
3:15−3:45 Les vêtements des Judéennes d’Éléphantine d’après les contrats de mariage araméens
Lior Gautier (Université de Québec à Montréal)
BREAK
4:00−4:30 From priestess to professor? Women and their roles in second millennium BCE Thebes
Robyn Gillam (York University)
4:30−5:00 Reassessing Egypt’s Eastern, New Kingdom Frontier
(via Zoom) Gregory Mumford (University of Alabama)
5:00−5:30 Drawing the Alabaster Vessels from the Tomb of Kha and Merit housed in the Museo Egizio, Turin, for Publication
Lyla Pinch-Brock (Royal Ontario Museum)
5:30−5:45 WRAP-UP
FRIDAY NOV. 6: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
SSEA MEMBERS
Humber Polytechnic, 59 Hayden St., 4th Floor
7:00 PM Annual General Meeting
followed by Members’ Reception
SATURDAY NOV. 7
50th SSEA/SÉÉA Symposium
FEASTS AND FESTIVALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Humber Polytechnic, 59 Hayden St., 4th Floor.
9:00−9:15 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Kei Yamamoto
9:15−10:05 The Earliest Feast Calendar of Ancient Egypt: The Fifth Dynasty Sun Temple of Nyuserra in Context
(via Zoom) Massimiliano Nuzzolo (University of Turin)
BREAK
10:20−11:10 Sed-festival and Kingship: The Relief Decoration of the Gateway of Osorkon II in the Temple of Bastet in Bubastis
(via Zoom) Eva Lange−Athinadorou (University of Würzburg)
11:10−12:00 Work Hard, Play Hard: Scenes of the Military in Festive Contexts
Carla Mesa Guzzo (Toronto)
LUNCH
1:15−2:05 Feelings and Festivals: Happiness in Late New Kingdom Monumental Art
Tara Prakash (College of Charleston)
2:05−2:55 Observe the Feast of the Gods… Song, Dance and Incense are his Foods
Suzanne Onstine (University of Memphis)
BREAK
3:10−4:00 Beyond Bread and Beer: The Art and Archaeology of the Banquet in Ancient Egypt
Lyn Green (Toronto)
4:00−4:50 The Festivals of Drunkenness in the Temple of Mut: The Enactment and Intention of the Rituals
Betsy Bryan (Johns Hopkins University)
4:50−5:00 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Speakers and attendees are invited to adjourn to the Bishop and Belcher Pub, just east at Hayden St. and Church St.
The SSEA gratefully acknowledges the support of the Katary family through the Sally L.D. Katary Speakers’ Fund, which has made this Symposium program possible.
SUNDAY NOV. 8: COLLOQUIUM DAY 2
Humber Polytechnic, 59 Hayden St., 4th Floor.
10:30−11:00 Unseen history: fragments of the Montuhotep Temple at Deir el Bahari at the Royal Ontario Museum
Gayle Gibson (Royal Ontario Museum)
11:00−11:30 Reconstructing the troubled history of a cylinder seal from Beth Shean (IAA J.911): untangling the material impression of Egyptian-Levantine interactions
(via Zoom) Yasmine Ayad (Universite de Liège)
11:30−12:00 A Case Study in the Pseudoscientific and Pseudo medical Reinterpretation of Egyptology: Investigating “Egyptian Yoga”
(via Zoom) Jean-Baptiste Poussard (Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier)
LUNCH
1:00−1:30 The revival of the sd-festival in the Middle Kingdom: rethinking royal jubilee traditions
(via Zoom) Marianne Pinon (Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier)
1:30−2:00 The Appearance of Lapis-Lazuli in Lower Nubia in the mid-Fourth Millennium BC and its Role in Contacts with Predynastic Egypt
Thomas Greiner (Toronto Metropolitan University)
BREAK
2:15−2:45 Settlement Patterns in Greco-Roman Fayyum – urbanism and entanglement theory in a colonial context
Lanka Hamelin (University of Toronto)
2:45−3:15 On the Waters of Pharaoh: Fluvial Boundary Making in Middle and New Kingdom
Oren Siegel (University of Toronto)
3:15−3:30 WRAP-UP
Only one ticket is necessary to enjoy all three days of Egyptology. Enrol for the whole weekend via our Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ssea-50th-annual-symposium-feasts-and-festivals-in-ancient-egypt-tickets-1998381422630
