Episode 90: Raiders of the Lost Ark with Kathleen Sheppard, Julia Troche, and Leah Packard-Grams

This week we are joined by three historians of archaeology: Kate Sheppard, Julia Troche, and Leah Packard-Grams to talk about one of the most perfect films ever made: Raiders of the Lost Ark. We jump into the history of archaeology, Egypt, Hitler's fascination with the occult, and the perfect pair of Marion Ravenwood and Indiana Jones. Oh, and we drank the whole time. Get ready because this episode goes places.

About our guests:
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard earned her PhD in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma in 2010. After a post-doctoral teaching fellowship at the American University in Cairo, she arrived at Missouri S&T in the fall of 2011. She teaches mainly survey courses on modern Western Civilizations, which is arguably one of the most important courses students in 21st century America can take. Her main focus is on the history of science from the ancient Near East to present day Europe, United States, and Latin America. She has taught courses on the history of European science and Latin American science, as well as a seminar on women in the history of science.

Dr. Julia Troche (she/her) is an Egyptologist, public historian, and educator who is passionate about making history accessible across barriers. She holds a Ph.D. in Egyptology from Brown University and a B.A. in History from UCLA. Julia is currently Associate Professor at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. She serves as a Governor for the Board of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) and is President, Past Two-Term Vice President, and co-founder of ARCE-Missouri. She is co-chair (since 2024) of the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR)’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee as well as the Session Chair (2023-2025) for the Archaeology of Egypt sessions at the ASOR annual meeting. Julia’s first book, "Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms" was published in 2021 with Cornell University Press. She is currently working on a book about the god Ptah for Bloomsbury, a textbook (with B. Brinkman) for Routledge, and a series of articles on Egyptomania and Imhotep that she hopes to turn into a public-facing book.

Leah Packard-Grams is a doctoral candidate at the University of California-Berkeley whose primary interests include Greek, Demotic, and Coptic papyrology, the archaeology of Greco-Roman Egypt, the archaeology of papyrology, and the physicality of ancient texts. She is passionate about diversifying the fields of Archaeology and Greco-Roman Classics to include those accounts of the people who have been historically oppressed and underrepresented. She has worked on translating unpublished papyri in Coptic and Greek for Bryn Mawr College and her recent work has been focused on lexicographical papyrology and the usage of lexical papyri.