in Ottoman landscapes,” ASEH (6/25/2005; 3/29-4/2/2006)

Deadline June 25, 2005

CFP: “Concentric Circles, Parallel Lines: modern technologies in Ottoman
landscapes”
Abstracts are sought for a proposed panel for the annual meeting of the
American Society of Environmental Historians (St. Paul, MN, March 29-
April 2, 2006) devoted to discussion of landscapes in environmental
history.

Over the long nineteenth century of technical innovation, the Ottoman
state extended across geographical boundaries to rule a variety of
landscapes from the Mediterranean to the Gulf. While states can be
defined by their legal forms, territorial boundaries, coercive
capacities, normative citizenship, or public ideologies, this panel
describes the Ottoman state by means of technologies mobilized over and
in landscapes.

While relations between urban technologies and landscapes during the late
Ottoman period are present no single, schematic type, nineteenth-century
technical innovations introduced new territorialities to Ottoman rule,
connecting local communities with urban centers, imperial capitals, and
global investors. Contemporary technologies reiterated roles for local
notables, introduced markets and innovated forms of governance, and
consolidated state and market control within the Empire and its
borderlands.

New powers distinguished modernity in Ottoman landscapes from those
outside laws' protections. ‘Concentric circles’ looped individuals into
modernist citizenship and global markets; ‘parallel lines' lead to
regional centers and the Ottoman capital. This panel considers
‘concentric circles’ (of census takers’ and epidemiologists’ rounds,
within irrigation circles, traced during prisoners’ leisure), and
‘parallel lines’ (railways' tracks, telegraph lines, columns of print)
during a long nineteenth century.

Further information on the ASEH is available on the web at
http://www.h-net.org/~environ/ASEH/welcome_IE4.html. Kindly submit
250-word abstracts as an email message to Dr. Elizabeth Bishop
(Elizabeth_bishopmail.utexas.edu) by 25 June.