Egyptology graduates celebrate 20 years of friendship

Posted on: 30 September 2024 by Kim Fisher (BA Egyptian Archaeology 2007, MA Museum Studies 2014) in 2024

A group of Egyptology graduates celebrated 20 years of friendship since meeting at Liverpool. Kim Fisher shared the highlights of their recent reunion and the memorable moments they enjoyed together.

September 2024 marked 20 years since my friends and I started our Egyptology degrees and so we planned a reunion to celebrate 20 years of friendship that began in Liverpool, appropriately timed during Fresher’s Week.

Campus has changed so much since we were students in 2004 and we noticed a lot of new buildings, recreation facilities and lots of things to do for Fresher’s. We visited our old department in 14 Abercromby Square and although our old class library and lecture room is no longer in existence, the ground-floor space has been transformed into the Garstang Museum of Archaeology and so we enjoyed a private tour and took some photos in the rooms that we used to study in.

Left – Kim Fisher, Gemma Malyk, Charlotte Weaver, Sarah Duffy, Eleanor Wilkinson, Anna Garnett at the Garstang Museum

We visited the Victoria Gallery & Museum ‘Creatures of the Nile’ exhibition. The Waterhouse Café provided a very special lunch which we all thoroughly enjoyed. The Victoria Building was being refurbished while we were students, so it was great to showcase the original university building and its collections. We love that the university is embracing its history more and is proud to be the original redbrick and a special thanks go to the Alumni team who provided redbrick tote bags so that we can represent our university no matter where we are.

Our group enjoyed refreshments at the VG&M Waterhouse Café

At the appropriately named Sphinx bar, we enjoyed a few drinks surrounded by the 2024 Freshers and remarked on the changes to the Guild and remembered the fun nights out we had there and so we continued celebrations in town finding old student haunts and had another great night out to add to our memories of Liverpool. We finished the weekend with an Egyptian Escape room where our degrees came in very handy.

We solved ‘The Betrayal of Cluetankamun’ escape room game

Our degrees have led us into diverse occupations around the country including curatorial and collections roles at the universities of Cambridge and University College London, museum visitor services and education roles at The University of Liverpool as well as occupations at an auction house and the NHS. Although we don’t see each other often, we talk regularly in our ‘Uni Girls’ WhatsApp group. We’ve all achieved a lot over the last 20 years and we celebrate every win and support each other through the rollercoaster of life. You know when you’ve got a great friendship group when you can just pick up where you left off.

Advice that we have for students today is – take lots of photos! Looking back at our photos and talking about our student days was a highlight of our reunion. Be present and enjoy every moment! Try new things, volunteer and get involved in campus life as much as possible as you don’t know where this valuable experience can take you.  

A then and now photo of Kim in The Department of Archaeology, Classics & Egyptology

20 years ago feels like 20 minutes when we get together, we all loved our reunion … so we might just have to organise one soon to mark 20 years since we graduated!

Thanks to Kim, Gemma, Charlotte, Sarah, Eleanor and Anna for sharing their story with us. If you would like to share your reunion story, please get in touch with us at: alumni@liverpool.ac.uk.