Jonathan Winnerman

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 Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Associate Director of Global Antiquity. A specialist in ancient Egyptian philology (Old Egyptian through Coptic) and visual culture, he teaches classes on ancient Egypt while also coordinating interdisciplinary ancient studies curricula to complement the vision of Global Antiquity. As Associate Director, he also assists faculty with grant projects, and invites interested colleagues to reach out to him to take advantages of these services.

His research and teaching are grounded in the cultures of ancient north Africa, but he is interested more broadly in the construction and maintenance of sacred 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 current project focuses on a series of standard and enigmatic hieroglyphic texts and analyzes how they define the divine kingship of Amun-Re and how terrestrial rules inserted themselves into these formulae. He is also part of a working group on ancient Egyptian kingship that 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 sacred power.

Pedagogically, he regularly teaches the online asynchronous course, “Foundation Myths: Kings, Heroes, and Sorceresses in Ancient and Modern Imaginations,” and is developing a second course on Ancient Engineering. Both classes benefit greatly from guest lectures by faculty specializing in a large variety of ancient worlds, and he once again invites colleagues who may be interested in participating to contact him.

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.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “New Observations on the Cryptographic Text of Pinudjem I at Medinet Habu,” in A Master of Secrets in the Chamber of Darkness: Egyptological Studies in Honor of Robert K. Ritner. Edited by Brian Muhs and Foy Scalf. Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2024, pp. 539–556.
• “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.