Ancient Office Hours

Returning guest, Dr. David Schenker, a professor of classics at Mizzou, returns for a 6-year catch up! At the time of this recording, he had just taught his final formal class after 35 years at the University of Missouri. Luckily, he will continue working through delivering occasional lectures, committee work, and Greek reading. In today’s episode, he discusses shifting from “Classical Tradition” to “Classical Reception,” and updates us on his cross-listed course, “Black Dionysus: Greek Tragedy in Africa and the African Diaspora.” The conversation also covers curriculum debates, Emily Wilson’s campus visit to Mizzou, reactions to Christopher Nolan’s new Odyssey trailer, AI in teaching, and department restructuring. Lastly, he provided insight into the “Schenkerthon” retirement event held in honour of his retirement and his hopes for his departmental legacy and other retirement plans. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com!

Originally recorded May 7, 2026.

Learn more about Dr. Schenker: https://car.missouri.edu/people/schenker

Listen to his first AOH episode: https://www.ozymandiasproject.com/podcast/episode/37933cbe/episode-2-dr-david-schenker

Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday.

Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Salima Ikram, a Distinguished Professor and the Amelia Peabody Chair in Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, joins Lexie to discuss her interests in preservation and mummification, revitalizing an Egyptian Museum animal mummy room, shifting her toward funerary and animal-mummy research while remaining “food obsessed,” and the practical logistics of temple offerings, disease and hygiene, beer and water, and teases a short introductory food book currently in progress. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com!

Originally recorded August 19, 2025.

Learn more about Dr. Ikram: https://www.aucegypt.edu/fac/salima-ikram

Follow her public Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SlIkram

Find her publications on Academia: https://aucegypt.academia.edu/SalimaIkram

Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday.

Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Jenn Finn, an Associate Professor and Chair of the Classical Studies Department at Loyola University Chicago, joins Lexie to discuss how coursework in Achaemenid Persian art and a Pompeii dig led her to learn cuneiform and frame Alexander the Great in an ancient Near Eastern context, Alexander as a symbolic strategist, the barrier of source limits, and her experience consulting for the Netflix documentary Alexander: The Making of a God. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com!

Originally recorded August 14, 2025.

Learn more about Dr. Finn: https://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/facultydirectory/profiles/finn.shtml

Find her publications on Academia: https://luc.academia.edu/JennFinn

Find the episode of Legacies of Ancient Persia with Dr. David Potter: https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/media/podcast/

Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday.

Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Petra Creamer, an Assyriologist, archaeologist, and professor of the Ancient Near East at Emory University, joins Lexie to discuss focusing on the Assyrian Empire to understand how non-elites experienced state power, Assyrian deportation as a labor and control strategy that often moved families and aimed to resettle people as productive “Assyrians,” and conducting fieldwork at Katrash near Erbil, an unexpected rural Neo-Assyrian administrative/storage center likely tied to agricultural extraction and imperial bureaucracy. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com!

Originally recorded July 31, 2025.

Learn more about Dr. Creamer: https://mesas.emory.edu/people/biographies/Creamer-Petra.html

Follow her on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/petramcreamer.bsky.social

Follow her research on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Petra-Creamer

Find her publications on Academia: https://emory.academia.edu/PetraCreamer

Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday.

Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Jeffrey Newman, an Egyptologist and a research associate at UCLA's Pourdavoud Institute, joins Lexie to discuss his dissertation, which examines ritual performance and the origins of Egyptian bureaucracy and state formation, Predynastic and Early Dynastic chronologies, addresses First Dynasty human sacrifice, and his cultural heritage photography & photogrammetry experiences. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com!

Originally recorded July 22, 2025.

Learn more about Dr. Newman: https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/people/jeffrey-newman/

Follow his work on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeffrey-Newman-5

Read his dissertation: https://www.proquest.com/docview/3180856129

Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday.

Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.