Staff

Foy Scalf works at the nexus of scholarship, research, information science, digital humanities, museums, libraries, archives, and data science. He directs the ISAC Data Research Center, including supervision of the premiere library for the study of ancient West Asia and North Africa, the Research Archives, as well as the Archives and Data Services at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago. As a scholar and Research Associate, he has published widely on ancient Egypt within its North African context, making contributions to the understanding of its intellectual culture, textual transmission, and history of the book. He is currently involved as principal investigator in several major Digital Humanities projects, including the CEDAR Book of the Dead, the ISAC Museum Demotic Ostraca Online database, and DemonThings: Ancient Egyptian Demonology. He received his PhD in Egyptology with honors from the University of Chicago with a dissertation examining religious literature from Roman Egypt and identifying its origins in the oral traditions attested in graffiti from preceding centuries. He curated a special exhibit for the ISAC Museum called “Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt” and assembled a group of internationally-acclaimed scholars as editor of the accompanying catalog. In 2016, he was awarded the Archival Innovator Award by the Society of American Archivists for his role in the Integrated Database Project. As an educator, Foy received the 2022 College of Applied Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching award for part-time faculty at Dominican University. He continues to promote outreach through numerous talks, events, and courses.