love when im watching a documentary and im like “yep thats an egyptologist alright”
oh my god?
*hisses in Egyptologist*
So for those of you who don’t know yet, this is Colleen Darnell, also known as The Vintage Egyptologist on Instagram where she goes full colonialist in 1920s/1930s clothing complete with pith helmets and using Egyptians both living and dead as props. (Not kidding: she takes Aesthetique™ photos in tombs.) She’s married to John Darnell, who was formerly her professor and PhD supervisor at Yale, and it’s quite a well-known scandal in Egyptological circles that the two were having an affair before and at the time of her working on that PhD. John, who was married during that affair, eventually divorced his wife and then married Colleen.
In the field, they’re considered bad scholars. Beyond the Yale scandal, beyond the fact they’re being ridiculously colonialist in the way they present themselves and their “vintage fashion” choices, which they will extend to wearing on actual digs in Egypt itself, their condescending attitudes bleed through in their scholarship. A scholarship that’s mediocre at best to begin with. However, because they (especially Colleen) have such a strong social media presence, they keep getting asked for docus or to serve as consultants for popular media (e.g. Jodi Picoult heavily consulted them for her novel The Book of Two Ways and whoof it shows), and most people won’t question their fashion choices because “ohh aesthetic”.
However, by far most Egyptologists despise them for their academic dishonesty and refusal to acknowledge the loaded history behind their chosen mode of dress.
