lagaiby@sac.edu.au

Dr Lisa Agaiby

Academic Dean
Senior Lecturer in Coptic Studies

BA, MA, PhD

Biography

Dr Agaiby received a Ph.D. from Macquarie University, Sydney Australia, and from the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her areas of interest include Early Egyptian Monasticism, Manuscript Studies, and Christian-Arabic Studies. 

Her latest publications include: First in the Desert: St. Paul the Hermit in Text and Tradition (Brill, 2024); with Tim Vivian, Door of the Wilderness: The Greek, Coptic, and Copto-Arabic Sayings of St. Antony of Egypt (Brill, 2021); with Mark N. Swanson, and Nelly Van Doorn-Harder, Copts in Modernity (Brill, 2021); and The Arabic Life of Antony attributed to Serapion of Thmuis. Cultural Memory Reinterpreted (Brill, 2018).  

Education

  • BA – Newcastle University
  • MA (Egyptology) – Macquarie University
  • MA (Coptic Studies) – Macquarie University
  • PhD – University of Göttingen
  • PhD – Macquarie University

Recent Research Outputs

Books

Agaiby, Lisa ed. (2024, Aug.) First in the Desert: St. Paul the Hermit in Text and Tradition, Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (36). (Leiden & Boston: Brill). ISBN: 978-90-04-70221-9.

Agaiby, Lisa and Tim Vivian (2021, Nov.) Door of the Wilderness: The Greek, Coptic, and Copto-Arabic Sayings of St. Antony of EgyptTexts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (23). (Leiden & Boston: Brill). ISBN: 978-90-04-47186-3.

Agaiby, Lisa, Mark N. Swanson, and Nelly Van Doorn-Harder eds. (2021). The Proceedings of St Athanasius College’s International Symposium of Coptic Studies: “Copts in Modernity” 13 to 16 July 2018Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (22). (Leiden & Boston: Brill). 472pp. ISBN: 978-90-04-44657-1.

Agaiby, Elizabeth (Lisa) (2018) The Arabic Life of Antony attributed to Serapion of Thmuis. Cultural Memory Reinterpreted, Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (14). (Leiden & Boston: Brill). 279pp. ISBN 978-90-04-38327-2.

Selected peer-reviewed journal articles/book chapters

(2023) “A Wonder that was Performed by Our Holy Father the Archimandrite Anbā Shinūdah, by the Hand of Our Father the Patriarch Anbā Mattāʾūs.” In: Pharaonen, Mönche und Gelehrte: Auf dem Pilgerweg durch 5000 Jahre ägyptische Geschichte über drei Kontinente. Heike Behlmer zum 65. Geburtstag, eds. Diliana Atanassova, Frank Feder and Heike Sternberg el-Hotabi (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag), pp. 1-13. ISBN 978-3-447-12066-1.

(2021) “Copto-Arabic Sayings Attributed to St Antony the Great.” In: Studia Patristica. Vol. CXXIV – Papers presented at the Eighteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2019. Volume 21: Hagiographica; Ascetica; Martyria (124), ed. Markus Vincent (Leuven: Peeters), pp. 67-74. ISBN 9789042947764.

(2021) “The Cenotaph in the Cave Church of St. Paul the Hermit.” In: Copts in Modernity. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (22), eds. Lisa Agaiby, Mark N. Swanson, Nelly van Doorn Harder (Leiden & Boston: Brill), pp. 321-356. ISBN 978-90-04-44657-1.

(2020) “Synopsis of the Arabic Pseudo-Serapionic Life of Antony.” In: Christianity and Monasticism in Alexandria and the Egyptian Deserts, eds. Hany N. Takla and Gawdat Gabra (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press), pp. 1-11. ISBN 9774169611.

(2019) “Shenoute the Archimandrite in Manuscripts at the Red Sea Monasteries.” Coptica (Los Angeles: St Shenouda Society for Coptic Studies), pp. 1-16. ISSN 1541-163X.

(2018) “A Codicological Overview of MS St Paul Monastery (History) 53.” Bulletin de la Société d’Archéologie Copte, 57 (Cairo: Société d’Archéologie Copte), pp. 11-31. ISSN 0005-948X.

(2018) “Manuscripts Containing the Life of Antony in Arabic.” Parole de l’Orient (Jounieh, Lebanon: Faculté Pontificale de Théologie de l’Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik), pp. 15-35. ISSN 0258-8331.