Central Asia WG • Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin

Maya Peterson of the History Department at UC Santa Cruz will give a talk about her recent book: Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Peterson received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2011, with a dissertation entitled Technologies of Rule: Empire, Water, and the Modernization of Central Asia, 1867-1941. Peterson’s research stands at the intersection of environmental history and imperial history. She explores the inner workings of empires and how they function by focusing on how the physical environment of an empire might open up new avenues for thinking about modernity and colonial relationships.

The event is sponsored by the Central Asia Working Group. For all inquiries about the group, please contact Dr. Eren Tasar (etasar@email.unc.edu)