History of Egyptology at Christ's

  • 1934

    Sir E. A. Wallis Budge dies, leaving Christ’s College a substantial legacy. In line with Budge’s request, the College uses these funds to endow a fellowship to support early-career Egyptologists, named in honour of his wife, Dora Helen Budge (née Emerson). Additional funds were also made available for Egypt-related research costs, such as fieldwork, training and publication expenses.
  • 1936

    Charles R. C. A. Allberry is elected the first Lady Wallis Budge Fellow in Egyptology. One of the most promising Coptic scholars of his generation, Allberry was tragically killed in the RAF in 1943.
  • 1956

    Harry S. Smith is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to become Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at UCL.
  • 1963

    David B. O’Connor is awarded a scholarship through the Lady Wallis Budge Fund. While technically not a full Fellow, his contribution to Egyptology at Christ’s is important nonetheless. He would go on to become Professor of Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology at NYU.
  • 1966

    Geoffrey T. Martin is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to become Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at UCL and Vice-President of the Egypt Exploration Society, before returning to Christ’s as a Fellow-Commoner in 1998.
  • 1972

    W. John Tait is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to become Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at UCL.
  • 1979

    Gay Robins becomes the first female academic to be elected Budge Fellow. She would go on to become Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Art History at Emory University.
  • 1983

    Nigel C. Strudwick is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to serve as Assistant Keeper at the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.
  • 1993

    Toby Wilkinson is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to hold a range of senior appointments in university administration, most notably Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lincoln and Vice-Chancellor of Fiji National University.
  • 1998

    Sarah J. Clackson is elected Budge Fellow. A leading Coptologist, she tragically died of cancer in 2003. The Sarah J. Clackson Coptic Fund has been set up in her honour in Oxford.
  • 2005

    Fredrik N. Hagen is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to become Professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen.
  • 2010

    Rune Nyord is elected Budge Fellow. He would go on to become Assistant Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology at Emory University.
  • 2016

    Kathryn Howley is elected Budge Fellow. She would go on to become Lila Acheson Wallace Assistant Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art at NYU. That same year, Christ’s inaugurates a new tradition of organising its own Egyptology conference by holding the first Lady Wallis Budge Egyptology symposium, Concepts in Middle Kingdom Funerary Culture.
  • 2017

    Christs’ holds its second Lady Wallis Budge Egyptology symposium, Egyptology and Anthropology.
  • 2019

    Alexandre A Loktionov is elected Budge Fellow. He remains in post and is currently Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded research grant, The Development of Early Constitutional Thought.
  • 2020

    The third Lady Wallis Budge Egyptology symposium, Compulsion and Control in Ancient Egypt, is held at Christ’s. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it becomes the first Egyptology conference to be hosted online from the College.
  • 2022

    The new Christ’s College Egyptology website is launched. This is part of the College’s celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs and the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.