Dr. Monica Hanna is an international figure in the world of Archaeology. She did her undergraduate studies in Egyptology and Archaeological Chemistry at the American University in Cairo (AUC), 2004. Hanna then pursued an MA TEFL 2006 at AUC as well. She later joined the University of Pisa, Italy to complete her doctorate in archaeology entitled ‘Problems of Preservation of Mural Paintings in the Theban Necropolis: A Pilot Study on the Theban Tomb 14 using 3D Scanning Techniques’.
From July 2011 until November 2012, Monica was a post-doctoral fellow in the Topoi Cluster of Excellence in the Department of Egyptology and North African Studies in Humboldt University.
Currently, Hanna is an associate professor the acting dean of the College of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Aswan, Egypt where she has founded a program specialized in Archaeology and Cultural heritage with eight departments for the BA level.
Post the year 2011, Hanna has been working with the media and a group of volunteers to bring awareness to the plight of various archaeological sites in Egypt, including and especially Dahshur, Abu Sir el-Maleq and Ancient Heliopolis.
She courageously spoke and defended the heritage of Egypt and its protection. Hanna has been granted numerous awards including the SAFE beacon award for 2014 for her efforts in the salvage of antiquities under conflict and was named by UNESCO the Monuments Woman of 2014. She has also received ‘Distinguished AUC Alumna’ two times, once in Cairo 2014 and the other in New York 2015.
Her current research focuses on decolonizing archaeology, repatriation and restitution amongst methods for accessibility for the wider public to archaeology and heritage with particular interest in digital humanities.
In 2020, she was chosen from the 50 most influential women in Egypt under the auspices of the Egyptian Prime Minister. In 2020, she was awarded a research grant as part of Action for Restitution in Africa in collaboration with University of Oxford where she is working on starting a solid discourse of decolonizing western museum collections.
Influencers Today: We are curious how did the career story of Monica Hanna start from a dream into becoming the legend you are today?
Dr. Monica Hanna: Since I was young I was curious about Egyptology, but I went another way in college, I studied engineering for a year, but I spent a lot of time reading books about Egyptology and my mom noticed that and encouraged me to drop out of Engineering School to start studying Egyptology and I am grateful for that.
InfluencersToday: Why Egyptology in specific? If you were non-Egyptian would you have still majored in Egyptology?
Dr. Monica Hanna: I don’t know if I wasn’t an Egyptian what would have happened. My family originally is from Upper Egypt, Al-Minya Governorate. My dad is from “Abu Qirqas” and my mom is from “Matai”. I would spend my summer vacations there, surrounded by the history of Egypt in every inch, starting from the house we lived in, and I believe that had a huge influence on my interests and influenced my future for sure.
Influencers Today: You are ambitious, revolutionary, passionate, knowledgeable and charismatic. How was Monica’s childhood; were you born with these interesting characteristics or did you develop them through time?
Dr. Monica Hanna: I wasn’t always like that, I was a shy person, and my skills and characteristics developed through time.
Influencers Today: As the Dean of the College of Archeology and Cultural Heritage at The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport in Aswan, how do you mentor your students and prepare them to become future ambassadors for heritage?
Dr. Monica Hanna: The school system in Egypt needs lots of alterations and changes, it needs to be more variant and adaptable, it needs to consider the different types of people and their learning means. We don’t need to memorize who did what in which time, we need to conclude such information from studying the archeological sites themselves. History needs to be associated with one’s background.
When you ask kids to draw something historical they automatically draw the pyramids, although each governorate in Egypt has its unique historical sites and monuments. Kids need to learn through site visits and through appreciating their roots.
To be a good archeologist isn’t just about studying history and understanding it, this is why we developed a diverse curriculum for our college students, in which they study about the Media and its role in the field, they learn about public relations and they also have practical courses and soft skills so they can be fully prepared to work in the archeology field.
Influencers Today: How did you grow so many followers on social media and grab their attention towards heritage and Egyptology?
Dr. Monica Hanna: I didn’t do it in purpose, through the events of 2011, there were a lot of criminal activities going on especially in the archeology field. Lots of monuments were being stolen, lost or destroyed. I had to talk. I started tweeting about it, telling the people about their history and what’s happening and why they should fight to protect it. That was my main goal, educate the people about their history and heritage and its importance.
Influencers Today: In general how do you think social media influenced the heritage field right now?
Dr. Monica Hanna: The thing about social media is that it gives a people a chance to talk, to have a voice and a chance to know what is going on around the world.
Influencers Today: Governments in several countries started to encourage having Virtual Museums. What is your opinion about this?
Dr. Monica Hanna: I am always rooting for “accessibility”. Everyone should have access to their history and the history of others. Let’s think about anyone with a disability that holds them back from visiting museums or people that don’t have enough money to discover their own heritage. Virtual Museums give them the chance to experience that remotely.
Influencers Today: What if social media had existed in the times of Ancient Egypt, and everyone would express their opinions to share, how it would have been like
Dr. Monica Hanna: Ancient Egyptians did have social media, they would write whatever they wanted to say on pottery and several stuff like that, so they had an outlet to share their voices and opinions as much as they wanted.
Influencers Today: Our usage and dependence on social media and the virtual world is growing day by day. Let’s imagine the world after tens of years with the metaverse taking over, do you think the term “intangible virtual heritage” would exist? And what would be the role of intangible cultural heritage on the virtual world?
Dr. Monica Hanna: Why not? I think the development of technology and the emerging of such things like the metaverse can be really helpful in the field of the archeology, it will allow us to reduce years of research. Imagine that you can see an archaeological site at the end of the world right here in front of you. It will help researches to collaborate faster and easier through such a platform and it will offer more and more accessibility as well.
Influencers Today: You have published tens of research papers. We would like to focus on a particular publication: “Women are from Africa and Men are from Europe”. In this paper you analyzed colonialism and patriarchy in the field of Egyptian archeology and how they interact with the interpretation of the past as well as the management of Egyptian heritage today. Can you tell us more about that?
Dr. Monica Hanna: The Egyptian History has been always documented by the “white man”. So when they study an Egyptian archeological site they study it from a patriarchal perspective. For example they found a room with several chairs and they automatically thought it was a living room, when we restudied this room we found out it was a delivery room. Considering such an incident and applying that on all the documented information we have based on a white’s man perspective shows us how the patriarchy and colonialism affected the writing of our own history. This is why we need more Egyptian female archeologists.
Influencers Today: We discussed that the archeology and heritage is a male-dominated field. So as an Egyptian woman, what difficulties have you faced during your journey and how do you usually deal with it?
Dr. Monica Hanna: I am not just a woman in male-dominated field, I am a woman with a voice, and they fear that the most. My first problem was recognizing that there was a problem. At first I would think this is the normal circumstances for the job, I would doubt myself and not the discrimination. Time after time I started recognizing it, when I would say something and it gets dismissed then after a male colleague would say the exact same thing and he gets appreciated.
The first step is to recognize the problem, then you start standing up for yourself. Sometimes when it
happens I ignore it especially on social media. But other times I have to face it, to teach my students and my
daughter to do the same, to let them know they aren’t alone. There’s a saying that I love by Maya Angelou
says, “ Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women…”
It’s more important for me to teach younger girls to find their voice than proving someone’s wrong.
Influencers Today: Our readers are very curious to know what is Monica Hanna’s own definition of “success”?
Dr. Monica Hanna: Waking up every morning happy to go to work… That’s success for me.
Influencers Today: Thank you Dr. Monica for making the world a much better place, with your voice, knowledge, research and social media posts!
