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Environmental Humanities Research Professorship

 


M. Chris Low, Environmental Humanities Research Professor (2023-2025)

Chris Low

The Well and the Water Machine: Desalination, Carbon Infrastructures, and Climate Risk
in the Arabian Peninsula

Since the 1970s, the petro-kingdoms of the Arabian Peninsula have conquered water scarcity
through the adoption of desalination technology. Fossil fuels have become the key ingredients in
the manufacture of man-made water. Mirroring the region’s ethos of endless energy, desalination
has fueled an equally problematic environmental imaginary of “infinite water,” obscuring the
region’s acute vulnerability to climate change. Read more about Dr. Low's research.


Previous recipients:

Rachel Mason Dentinger, History (2021-22)

  • Natural Insecticides & Evolutionary Warfare in the History of Coevolutionary Studies (1940s-2000s)

Katharina Gerstenberger, WLC (2019-2021)

  • Disturbed Places and Troubled Times: Narrating Bikini Atoll, Chernobyl, Fukushima 

Carlos Gray Santana, PHIL (2017-19)

Benjamin Cohen, HIST (2015-17)

Kevin Deluca, COMM (2012-14)

Julia Corbett, COMM (2010-12)

Danielle Endres, COMM inaugural term (2006-2007)

Research Professorship Benefits:

  • One course-release per year
  • Annual research funding of $1,500
  • Engagement with the intellectual life of the EH community
  • A public presentation and opportunity to celebrate your research at the end of your term

The EH Research Professor is supported by generous funding from the Kendeda FundAll faculty members from the College of Humanities who wish to pursue environmental research from humanities perspectives are encouraged to apply. Our next application cycle is open, and due 12/1/24. 

Last Updated: 11/19/24