A passing of the torch: Farewelling A/Prof. Boyo Ockinga and welcoming Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson
The year 2020, among other things, marks a time of significant change for the Egyptology community at Macquarie University. After more than three decades in the Department of Ancient History, Associate Professor Boyo Ockinga will be retiring from teaching at the end of the year. The post of Lecturer in Egyptology has been taken up by Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson, a Macquarie University alumna and previous student of Boyo. While plans to properly mark this transition have had to be postponed due to COVID-19, CACHE would like to take the opportunity to farewell our departing member Boyo and welcome our new colleague Camilla.
Boyo Ockinga’s time at Macquarie University has been defined by his contributions to research, teaching, and community engagement. He began his teaching post in 1984, four years after the Egyptology program had been established by his long-term mentor and colleague Dr Naguib Kanawati, now Distinguished Professor. Boyo has since led fieldwork projects at several sites in Egypt, focusing on the archaeological and epigraphic recording of New Kingdom non-royal tombs. He currently directs the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project in the Theban necropolis, Luxor, reconstructing the use and reuse of this sacred landscape through the recording of individual monuments. Boyo’s research interests have served to expand the Ancient History teaching program at Macquarie, with the development of units in Egyptian language, religion, and New Kingdom history. He has supervised a number of students at both Masters and Doctoral levels and has continued to provide mentorship and support to his students as they transition into early career research. As a member of CACHE, Boyo co-organised an Egyptology symposium in 2019 with the support of the Centre, which showcased the work of both HDRs and ECRs alongside established international Egyptologists. Over the years, Boyo has played an active role in promoting the study of ancient Egypt to the wider Australasian community through his involvement in the events and fundraising activities of the Rundle Foundation of Egyptian Archaeology and the Australian Centre for Egyptology. His publication of ancient Egyptian material in Australian collections has also contributed to the ongoing documentation of Australia’s past and present reception of Egyptian cultural heritage.
Camilla Di Biase-Dyson returns to Macquarie University, where she completed her PhD under Boyo’s supervision in 2008. Her doctoral research on ancient Egyptian literature and linguistics led to postdoctoral fellowships in Germany with both the research network TOPOI, a Cluster of Excellence focused on ancient world studies, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Camilla was appointed as Junior Professor for Egyptology at the Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, from 2012 to 2019. During this time, she also continued her work with TOPOI as an Associate Fellow and later as a Senior Research Fellow. Her research has focused on areas of metaphor, spatial terminology, ancient Egyptian literature and, most recently, ancient Egyptian medical texts. In addition to a number of publications on these topics, Camilla has also co-edited several volumes, including the 2017 Festschrift in honour of Boyo’s 65th birthday and a new collection of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies on metaphor. In joining the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie, Camilla brings her expertise in ancient Egyptian language, a defining area of study for the university, as well as the momentum of working in thriving and collaborative research and teaching environments.
We congratulate Boyo for his lasting impact on the study of ancient Egypt, locally, nationally, and internationally. While his presence will be greatly missed on campus, his passing of the torch to Camilla lights the way to new opportunities for the Department of Ancient History and CACHE.