My current book project book explores the entanglement of modern imperialism with the study of ancient empire. Most texts and artifacts that scholars use to reconstruct the Neo Assyrian Empire (~900–600 BCE) were removed from Iraq by agents of European and American imperialism. As a result, access to ancient Assyria is mediated through primary sources that are themselves the loot of modern empires. I argue that this imperial legacy continues to shape how we write the history of ancient Iraq and offer a new history of cultural interaction between ancient Assyria and its client states. A second project on gender and religious authority in Mesopotamia explores how religious texts and spaces can become loci of institutionalized gender transgression. I identify groups within Mesopotamian religious institutions whose professional, social, and internal experiences of gender did not necessarily align.