Dr Naguib Kanawati

Naguib Kanawati is an Egyptian Australian Egyptologist and Professor of

Egyptology at Macquarie University in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Career
A native of Alexandria, Egypt, with a Master's degree in business
administration, Kanawati later emigrated to Sydney, Australia, where he
obtained his second Master's degree and Doctorate, both in Egyptology.
He subsequently joined the academic staff of the university, as Lecturer in
History (1980–1983), and Associate Professor in Egyptology (1984–1990).
[1]

From 1990, Kanawati became Macquarie University's first Professor in

Egyptology and holds a Personal Chair in that subject. He was
instrumental in the formation of the Rundle Foundation for Egyptian
Archaeology in the late 1970s and was the founder, in 1989, of the
Australian Centre for Egyptology, which coordinates all Australian
excavations in Egypt with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Kanawati's research interests focus on the Old Kingdom period of Egypt,
its burial customs, art history, and socio-political development. He has
directed numerous excavations and epigraphic expeditions, at sites
including the entire mountain of El-Hawawish (in excess of 800 Old
Kingdom and First Intermediate Period rock-cut tombs), Quseir El Amarna,
El Hagarsa (near Sohag), Deir El Gebrawi, Giza, as well as the Unis and
Teti pyramid cemeteries at Saqqara.

Other interests
He is also the current Vice-President (and member for many years) of the
Parish Council of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy Church of Australia and New
Zealand; Vice-President, Eparchy Pastoral Council; the Chairman of its
Aged Care Committee; Chairman of the Melkite Board of Study; and
former Chair of its Finance Committee. He was the founding Committee
Member of the Holy Saviour Community School, continuing on the
committee since 1997. He was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy
of the Humanities in 1997.[2]

Honours
On 1 January 2001 he was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal "for
services to Australian society and the humanities in the study of
prehistory and archaeology".[3] In the Queen's Birthday Honours awarded
on 11 June 2007 he was awarded the Order of Australia "for service to
education through research and the promotion and advancement of the
study of Egyptology, and to the community."[4][5]