Tara Prakash
Associate Professor of Ancient Art
Education
Ph.D., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Art History and Archaeology
M.A., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Art History and Archaeology
B.A., Tulane University, Art History and African and African Diaspora Studies
Research Interests
Tara Prakash is a specialist of ancient Egyptian art and archaeology, and she teaches courses on ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Classical material culture. Her research focuses on issues of ethnicity and identity, foreign interactions, artistic agency, and the visualization of pain and emotion in ancient Egypt. Her recently published book is the first comprehensive study on the prisoner statues, a unique series of Egyptian statues that depict kneeling bound foreigners, and she is currently working on a book that investigates the emotions that were associated with ancient Egyptian kingship. Before coming to CofC, Dr. Prakash held postdoctoral fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Johns Hopkins University.
Courses Taught
ARTH 101 History of Art: Prehistoric through Medieval
ARTH 210 African Art
ARTH 212 Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture
ARTH 213 Art and Architecture of Ancient Mesopotamia and the Near East
ARTH 214 Ancient Greek Art
ARTH 340 Special Topics: Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality in Ancient Egypt and Beyond
Publications
Books:
Ancient Egyptian Prisoner Statues: Fragments of the Late Old Kingdom. Material and Visual Culture of Ancient Egypt 8. Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2022.
Edited volumes:
Rethinking Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Ann Macy Roth. Co-edited with Jennifer Miyuki Babcock and Lisa Saladino Haney. Harvard Egyptological Studies 22. Leiden: Brill, 2024.
Selected articles:
“Feel like a King: Theorizing the Emotions of Ancient Power.” In Understanding Power in the Ancient Egypt and the Near East: Volume 1, Approaches, edited by Shane Thompson and Jessica Tomkins, 136–152. Leiden: Brill, 2025.
“Emotions and the Manifestation of Ancient Egyptian Royal Power: A Consideration of the Twin Stelae at Abu Simbel.” Arts, Special Issue: Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, A Social Tool of Power and Resistance, edited by Kathlyn M. Cooney and Alisée Devillers, 13, no. 3 (2024): 174, .
“The Representation of Emotions and Time in Ancient Egyptian Smiting Scenes.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 83 (2024): 91–105.
“Late Old Kingdom Royal Statuary and the Development of the ‘Second Style’.” In Rethinking Ancient Egypt, edited by Tara Prakash, Jennifer Miyuki Babcock, and Lisa Saladino Haney, 72–88. Harvard Egyptological Studies 22. Leiden: Brill, 2024.
“From Saqqara to Brussels: A Head from a Sixth Dynasty Prisoner Statue in the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire.” Chronique d’Egypte 189 (2020): 5–19.
“The Prisoner Statues in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum: From the Late Old Kingdom to Today.” Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 49 (2020): 197–221.
“Everybody Hurts: Understanding and Visualizing Pain in Ancient Egypt.” In The Expression of Emotions in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 116, edited by Jaume Llop Raduà and Shih-Wei Hsu, 103–125. Leiden: Brill, 2020.