Oren Siegel

I received my PhD with honors from University of Chicago in 2020 in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology with a specialization in Egyptian Archaeology. My research interests include boundaries and border-making in the Pharaonic world, ancient Egyptian urbanism, and interactions between the built environment and political power. My dissertation investigated the development and symbolism of monumental enclosure walls in Egypt prior to the New Kingdom, and my current focus is on revising this into a book project. 

As a field archaeologist, I have worked at Mendes, Tell Edfu, Dendara, Aswan, and Uronarti and I am a member of the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project and the Uronarti Regional Archaeological Project. Prior to the appointment at University of Toronto in 2023, I was a postdoctoral researcher and digital specialist for the Borderscape Project at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. There, my work focused on reconstructing the ancient landscape and settlement pattern during the periods before, during, and after the formation of the Pharaonic state.