Biography
I am an Egyptologist and ancient historian focusing on globalization, imperialism, and mobility in ancient Egypt, the Near East, and the Mediterranean. Originally from Bologna, Italy, I read for a BA (First Class) in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford (2014), studying both Egyptology and Assyriology. Subsequently, I moved to the United States and obtained a Ph.D. in Egyptology from Brown University (2020). I taught ancient history at Wheaton College Massachusetts for one semester (Spring 2020), and then held an international postdoctoral fellowship in the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Charles University, Prague (January 2021-December 2022). From October 2023, I am the 7th Renfrew Fellow in the McDonald Institute, working on my project “Globalization, Citizens, and Society in Antiquity: A Comparative Study of Egypt and Ugarit”.
Research
I am an Egyptologist and a specialist in the history, languages, and cultures of Egypt, the Near East, and the Mediterranean, particularly during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 16th-12th centuries BC), arguably the first phase of globalization in world history. My interests are therefore highly interdisciplinary and diverse, both thematically and geographically, but my main research question is how ancient Egypt developed under conditions of globalization. My focus thus far has been on Egyptian imperialism in the Levant and its portrayal in royal inscriptions and literature, the Amarna letters, the political and economic history of New Kingdom Egypt, and Late Bronze Age Syria. Now, my project for the McDonald Institute investigates the interplay of institutional authorities, private citizens, localities, and global networks in the Late Bronze Age, through a Global Historical and comparative study of place-specific situations, regardless of direct connections, in pharaonic Egypt and in the “global city” of Ugarit in Syria.
Key Publications
Monograph
Zangani, F. (2022) Globalization and the Limits of Imperialism: Ancient Egypt, Syria, and the Amarna Diplomacy, Prague: Charles University Press, ISBN 978-80-7671-096‑2
Journal articles
Zangani, F. (2022) “Was There Ever an Egyptian Empire in the Northern Levant? Debunking the Egyptological Myth of Dynasty 18”, Journal of Egyptian History 15 (1), pp. 43-82.
Zangani, F. (2022) “Textual Evidence for the Diplomatic Role of the Egyptian Official Tutu from Amarna”, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 33, pp. 45-56.
Zangani, F. (2017) “Amenhotep II and Ugarit: Evidence from Egyptian Phonology”, Göttinger Miszellen 253, pp. 151-159.
Zangani, F. (2016) “Amarna and Uluburun: Reconsidering Patterns of Exchange in the Late Bronze Age”, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 148 (4), pp. 230-244.
Book chapters
Zangani, F. (2023) “Akhenaten and Nabonidus, Between Antiquarianism and Revolution”, in M. V. Almansa-Villatoro, S. Štubňová Nigrelli, and M. Lehner (eds.) In the House of Heqanakht. Text and Context in Ancient Egypt. Studies in Honor of James P. Allen, Harvard Egyptological Studies 16, Leiden and Boston: Brill, pp. 543-557.
Zangani, F. (2019) “Foreign-Indigenous Interactions in the Late Bronze Age Levant: Tuthmosid Imperialism and the Origin of the Amarna Diplomatic System”, in J. Mynářová, M. Kilani, and S. Alivernini (eds.) A Stranger in the House – the Crossroads III. Proceedings of an International Conference on Foreigners in Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Societies of the Bronze Age Held in Prague, September 10-13, 2018, Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts, pp. 405-423.
