Swamps and Seabeds: Late Ottoman Frontiers and the Environmental Foundations of the Modern Middle East

What does the environmental history of the Ottoman Empire tell us about the modern Middle East? In this talk, Chris Gratien reflects on this question through an exploration of the "late Ottoman frontier,” using three commodities — cotton, sponges, and citrus — in modern-day Turkey, Greece, and Israel.

Chris Gratien is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History at University of Virginia, where he offers courses on global environmental history and the modern Middle East.