When Women Ruled
Dr. Kara Cooney is an Egyptologist, archaeologist, associate professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA.
Raised in Houston, Kara Cooney obtained her bachelor of arts in German and Humanities from the University of Texas in Austin in 1994. She was awarded a PhD in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University for Near Eastern Studies. Dr. Cooney was part of an archaeological team excavating at the artisans' village of Deir el Medina in Egypt, as well as Dahshur and various tombs at Thebes. In 2002 she was Kress Fellow at the National Gallery of Art and worked on the preparation of the Cairo Museum exhibition Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt. After a temporary one-year position at UCLA, she took a three-year postdoctoral teaching position at Stanford University during which she acted as fellow curator for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She also worked for two years at the Getty Center before landing a tenure-
track position at UCLA in 2009.
Cooney's current research in coffin reuse, primarily focusing on the 20th Dynasty, is ongoing. Her research investigates the socioeconomic and political turmoil that have plagued the period, ultimately affecting funerary and burial practices in ancient Egypt. Dr. Cooney's book, The Woman Who Would Be King, the story of Hatshepsut, the woman who ruled Egypt as Pharaoh, was widely praised. Her most recent book When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt was published in 2018. Dr. Cooney currently resides in Los Angeles.
PEGGY LOAR is a board member of the Saint Helena Forum. She is a museum professional with global experience in museum planning and program development, museum architecture and design, and museum leadership. She currently serves as President of International Museum Planning Consultants, a boutique advisory services firm. Prior to this role, she was the interim Vice President for Global Arts and Culture and Director of the Asia Society Museum in New York City and the interim President and Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C. where she facilitated the merger of the Corcoran with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University. Peggy served as the founding Director of the new National Museum of Qatar, in Doha, designed by Jean Nouvel.
Peggy served as Director of the Museum Studio at Voorsanger Architects P.C. in New York City. She was the founding President and Director of two American institutions, The Wolfsonian Museum and Research Center in Miami, Florida, and Genoa, Italy; and COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, California, where she was later named President Emerita.
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Peggy is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Cincinnati, and an Arts Leadership Certificate from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
