A major draw for attending the Bard Graduate Center is the school’s location and access to museums and collections around the city. In Professor Anissa Malvoisin’s class “Global Materials Along the Nile: 3400 BCE-500 CE” we took full advantage this fall of New York’s resources with frequent museum visits and collection tours.

At the Brooklyn Museum, we visited the conservation department and viewed ancient Egyptian objects from their collection, meeting with Morgan Moroney, Assistant Curator, Ancient Egyptian Art and Kathy Zurek-Doule, Curatorial Associate, Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art we walked through the Egyptian galleries and had tours with Dr. Andrea Myers Achi, Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art, and with Dr. Janice Kamrin, curator of Egyptian art. On our last day of class we visited the Met’s exhibition “Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now.”

Not only did we conduct hands-on learning with site visits, but Annissa encouraged our learning of materials. When looking at slides she would ask us what we thought different objects were made out of, and I developed a visual vocabulary for ancient materials and making techniques, a lot of which are ubiquitous outside of this context. For example, before this class I had no idea what faience was or how it was produced. Now when I think about this material, I think about being in the Brooklyn Museum’s storage, crowded around tiny objects on a table. I have both a knowledge of the production of faience and a physical memory of encountering it in an ancient form.

The class was also tailored to our interests, and as the semester went on we could tell what might appeal to each other. Walking through the Met, I would tap Brenna Gomez (MA ’26) when we passed ancient jewelry. Asha Bell (MA ’26) brought a valuable maker’s perspective and attention to detail. We were encouraged to question things: objects, but also research gaps within the field of Egyptology, particularly the way Nubia has been historically represented and discussed.

When I was considering graduate programs, the global approach of BGC appealed to me. Taking classes outside of my speciality like this one pushes me out of my academic comfort zone. This has created new connections in my research and broadened my understanding of material culture — and it was fun! My camera roll grew in this class, and hopefully I will now walk through the ancient Egyptian galleries at the Met more knowledgeably.

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Sarah Egan is a first-year Masters Student.