About
Honours, B.A., Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, Anthropology, History (Caribbean), University of Toronto
MMSt, Master of Museum Studies, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Annissa Malvoisin received her PhD from the University of Toronto in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (2024). She specializes in ceramic studies and researches the inter-regional relationships between the Nile Valley and West Africa via the Meroitic pottery trade industry. Her dissertation Through the Sahara, Across the Red Sea: Trade Networks of Meroitic Fineware and their Impact on Modern Museum Collections is a tripartite and interdisciplinary analysis that incorporates Egyptian archaeology and Nubian archaeology, West African archaeology (specifically of Nigeria, Mali, and Ghana) and Museum Studies in order to investigate object biographies through the archaeological record and how these biographies influence the understanding of objects in museum collections. Within Egyptian archaeology and Nubian archaeology, this project aims to dismantle the problematic construction of studying Egypt and Nubia in a specific microcosm that often strictly includes the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia by expanding the study of regional connection through the re-analysis of trade routes, the re-analysis of museum displays, and using pottery as a material case study.
Major: Egyptian Archaeology
Minor: Nubian Archaeology
Minor: Middle Egyptian (Hieroglyphics)
Malvoisin is a curator and scholar of ancient African history with particular research interests in a globalized ancient world through the study of material culture and trade and from the perspective of African regions. Additionally, her scholarship contributes to understanding practical methods of rethinking outdated display frameworks that have settled into curatorial practice. While recognizing the valuable contributions of well-known and established art practitioners, Malvoisin has a keen interest in working with emerging artists.
Malvoisin has worked on the collections of Global Africa and Egypt and Nubia at the Royal Ontario Museum and as a ceramicist for the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition at Arizona State University. She is an experienced archaeological ceramicist and trained in archaeological practice. She sits on the board of the Council for Museum Anthropology and is a founding member of the William Leo Hansberry Society. Malvoisin is the Exhibition Reviews Editor for North America at African Arts.