Desert Wastes of the Maghreb: (Re)Writing French Colonial Environmental History of North Africa

FAIN: FT-51753-03

Diana K. Davis
Regents of the University of California, Davis (Austin, TX 78712-0100)

This project, based on archival research, will elaborate the critical importance of French colonial scientists and administrators in writing the standard environmental history of North Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. Moreover, it will elucidate the fundamental errors in this environmental history. In doing so, this research contributes to our understanding of the Mediterranean ecosystem, which the French defined using Morocco as the pivotal examplar and enriches our understanding of global environmental history . This project demonstrates the importance of the humanities, in terms of the historical narrative dating back to classical sources, for contemporary questions of the human environment and pressing debates over sustainability.