Education

• PhD, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
• MA, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
• AB, Art and Archaeology, Princeton University

Research

Jonathan Winnerman is an Academic Administrator in Ancient Studies at UCLA and works closely with the governance board to support Global Antiquity. A specialist in ancient Egyptian philology (Old Egyptian through Coptic) and visual culture, he first joined UCLA as a lecturer in Egyptology before becoming a part of Global Antiquity. Since joining the institute, he has contributed to several successful grant projects, and invites interested faculty to reach out to him to take advantages of these services.

While his research and teaching are still grounded in the cultures of ancient north Africa, he is interested in the construction and maintenance of kingship and power across ancient, premodern, and contemporary worlds. Most recently, this had led him to explore different conceptions of the body politic, the relationships between real and imagined representations of power, and the rise of authoritarianism. His PhD dissertation, titled “Rethinking the Royal Ka,” examines divine kingship in the Egyptian New Kingdom and argues against a single, paradigmatic approach to the divinity of the pharaoh. Instead, he advocates for a multifaceted examination of the divine nature of the king as well as an analysis of the social dynamics that created and maintained divine kingship. Jonathan is currently working on his first book and expanding the ideas broached therein beyond the borders of pharaonic hegemony.

Before joining UCLA, Jonathan worked in Egypt for many years, most notably as an epigrapher with the Epigraphic Survey in Luxor and with the Tell Edfu project. He continues to be interested in epigraphy and epigraphic methodology, especially in the digital realm. He previously taught ancient Egyptian language in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Divine Kingship and the Royal Ka,” in Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches. Edited by Kara Cooney, Nadia Ben-Marzouk, and Danielle Candelora. New York: Routledge, 2022, pp. 40–48.
• “Egyptology and Political Theology: An Examination of the Ethics of Scholarship,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 80, no. 1 (2021): pp. 167–193.
• “Preliminary Results,” in Winnerman and Wade, “The Block Yard Project at Tell Edfu,” in Current Research in Egyptology 14. Edited by Kelly Accetta et al.. Oxford, 2014, pp. 184–200.