Egypt - In Conversation: An Introduction to Egypt

Tune in as curator and Egyptologist Dr Melanie Pitkin chats with author, journalist and podcaster Caroline Baum for An Introduction to Egypt.

As the Senior Curator of the Nicholson collection of antiquities at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Melanie shares insight into ancient Egyptians and their world view. Learn about key personalities, events and periods of pharaonic history to the interrelationship between religion and society.

Recorded live at the Australian Museum on 13 December 2023, as part of the Gateway to Egypt program series, created to support Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition.

Melanie Pitkin is Senior Curator of the Nicholson Collection of antiquities and archaeology at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, and an Egyptologist. She has more than 15 years of experience working in museums in Australia and the United Kingdom and providing support to colleagues at museums in Egypt.

Melanie holds a PhD in Egyptology from Macquarie University. Her thesis examined the understudied First Intermediate Period through a study of its false doors and stelae, which was recently published by Golden House Press. Prior to joining the Chau Chak Wing Museum in February 2022, Melanie worked as a Research Associate (Egyptian Antiquities) at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

Author, Journalist & Podcaster Caroline Baum is the author of Only, A Singular Memoir. She is a journalist, broadcaster and hosts the Life Sentences podcast about contemporary biography. Caroline is also the curator of the True Story Festival each November at the South Coast Writers Centre in NSW. She has been a judge for literary awards including The Stella Prize, Premier’s Literary Awards and the Walkleys.

Macquarie University is a Program Partner for the Australian Museum’s Gateway to Egypt program, part of the Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition.