Carl Walsh

Carl Walsh is a researcher at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) and a Curatorial Assistant in the Exhibitions Department. He earned a BA in Egyptology from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Mediterranean and Western Asian Archaeology from University College London. Previously, he held postdoctoral fellowships at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and Brown University's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

His research examines the materiality of objects and bodily communication in Bronze Age North Africa, Western Asia, and the Mediterranean, with a focus on the Kerma (Kush) kingdom in modern Sudan. He investigates cross-cultural interactions through material culture (board games, cosmetics, furniture, pottery) and broader topics like ancient diplomacy, African statehood models, and architectural phenomenology. At NYU, he collaborates on exhibitions such as Through the Lens: Latif Al Ani's Visions of Ancient Iraq, exploring authenticity and ethical use of forgeries, replicas, and casts in museums. His work is featured in the co-edited volume Teaching Ancient Egypt in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice (Routledge, 2024) and the co-edited Tracing Gestures: The Art and Archaeology of Bodily Communication.