Ellen Morris is an Assistant Professor in the Classics and Ancient Studies Department at Barnard College, Columbia University. She has published extensively on issues pertinent to ancient Egyptian imperialism including a book entitled The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt's New Kingdom (2005). Her ongoing research interests and other publications focus on the dynamics of political fragmentation, state formation, sexuality and sacred performance, retainer sacrifice, island theory, and divine kingship. She has excavated in the Nile Valley at Abydos and Mendes, and at the site of Amheida in the Dakhleh Oasis.