The Orient-Institut Beirut will host an interdisciplinary workshop to examine the environmental history of the Ottoman Empire, which is an emerging and dynamic field in the Ottoman studies.

In the Ottoman context, the commonly prevailing holistic worldview leads us to analyze the relations of a human being to his/her environment in a broader spectrum of relations, i.e. human-divine relations, human-human relations, human-world relations. The totality of the network of these relations supplies us with a quite useful analytical instrument for an understanding of this newly emerging filed. With this perspective, the workshop is open to researchers from all subfields of Ottoman studies especially to historians, geographers, theologians, natural scientists, sociologists, political scientists, botanists, zoologists, who show interest in the Ottoman environmental history. Considering the wide territory of the Ottoman Empire, contributions related to the history of any part of it is also most welcome.

Submissions of papers are most welcome engaging with but not necessarily limited to the following subjects:
Theories, methods, approaches and sources
Urban and rural environmental history
Early measures to protect nature
Climate and climate change
Forests, commons, water, mines, pollution
Fisheries, rivers and sees
Agriculture and ecology
Natural disasters
Environmental conflicts

Proposals including an abstract (300-500 words) and a short biography can be sent to ermis@orient-institut.org no later than 20 February 2020. Full draft papers will be due 15 May 2020 for accepted proposals.

Travel expenses for early career researchers can be covered by the OIB.