My research focuses on the administration of urban and regional environments, primarily from the Middle Kingdom through early New Kingdom. I investigate the terminology used to define different administrative elements, as well as evidence of administrative processes. In these environments, I also consider labor organization, local labor resources, and their support.
My dissertation, Town and District: Local and Regional Administration during the Second Intermediate Period, examined these issues through a corpus of late Second Intermediate Period-18th Dynasty hieratic ostraca excavated at the site of Tell Edfu, the capital of the second nome of Upper Egypt.
My work on the Tell Edfu Ostraca has also led me to investigate writing processes and the active use of administrative texts. I am interested in the lifecycle of texts, particularly ostraca – from the choice of a sherd, to its physical manipulation as a writing surface, its period of use as a document, where and how it was stored, and the circumstances of its disposal.
I received my PhD from the University of Chicago (2016). I also hold an MA from the University of Chicago and a BA in Egyptology from the American University in Cairo.