A lecture by Dr. Chris Low, Environmental Humanities Research Professor

The Water Prince and the Salt Water Kingdom: Muhammad bin Faisal and the Saudi Desalination Revolution

It is an undisputed truism that the story of the twentieth century Arabian Peninsula is synonymous with oil. And while oil and gas pipelines have rightfully been understood as the infrastructural lifeblood of the region's meteoric rise, another set of pipelines and processing plants has remained virtually invisible to historians, desalination facilities. Despite this seeming invisibility, all Gulf states have embraced fossil-fueled solutions to address their acute water problems. Thus, instead of petro-states, this lecture argues that we also need to understand Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors as desalination powerhouses or Saltwater Kingdoms.

Dr. Chris Low serves as the current Environmental Humanities Research Professor, an award that supports a faculty member at the University of Utah whose work pursues environmental research from humanities perspectives. Dr. Low is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. He is the author of Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj (Columbia University Press, 2020). Low is also co-editor of The Subjects of Ottoman International Law (Indiana University Press, 2020).

Tuesday, February 25, 2025 | 2p | CTIHB 143 Jewel Box | Late Lunch

RSVP / questions to cory.pike@utah.edu.