Water in India’s Deccan: a Hydrosocial Perspective
Work in Progress Talk
Open to the Public | Seating is limited| Lunch provided
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
12:00 – 1:30PM
Humanities Building - Carolyn Tanner Irish (CTIHB)
The Jewel Box, Room 143
by BENJAMIN B. COHEN | Department of History
Water appears as liquid, ice, or steam, and can take shapes from raindrops to rivers, and from water bottles to reservoirs. In this work-in-progress presentation, I will speak from a current book project on water in India’s Deccan – a large region in south-central India. The presentation will focus on material drawn from two periods of Deccan history, the late medieval Kakatiya Empire, and the early modern Deccan Sultanates. I will explore Deccan history through a hydrosocial lens that sees the relationship between human and aquatic activity in the same analytic focus. This perspective, when deployed over a long-term view of India’s history, offers insights into the ways in which water and human activity have developed in the past, and continue to do so in the present.
About
Work-in-Progress Talks give Tanner Humanities Center fellows and University of Utah
faculty an opportunity to present the latest work on their current research and receive
feedback in a casual setting from students, faculty, staff, and community.