People

Dr. Steven Serels

Research Fellow

Research project: Eine neue Geschichte der Infektionskrankheiten in der Region des Südlichen Roten Meeres (DFG)

Positions

11/2019 - 2022
Research Fellow, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient; Funding: Sachbeihilfe [Individual Research Grant], Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
05/2018 - 10/2019
Projektleiter, Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien (ZIRS), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg; Funding: PRIME Fellowship, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
09/2017 - 08/2019
Visiting Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University; Funding: PRIME Fellowship, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (2018-19); Research Scholarship, Gerda Henkel Stiftung (2017-18)
09/2014 - 08/2017
Associated Research Fellow, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient; Funding: Research Scholarship, Gerda Henkel Stiftung (2016-17); Postdoctoral Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2015-16); Postdoctoral Fellowship, VolkswagenStiftung (2014-15)
09/2013 - 08/2014
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, Harvard University; Funding: Global Fellowship, The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History
09/2012 - 08/2014
Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University; Funding: Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Education

09/2007 - 08/2012
Doctor of Philosophy, Department of History, McGill University, Montreal Canada; Dissertation: ‘Feasting on Famines: Food Insecurity and the Making of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1883-1956’; Supervisors: Dr. Gwyn Campbell, Dr. Elizabeth Elbourne
09/2005 - 08/2007
Masters of Arts, Department of History, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Thesis: ‘Town Planning for Empire: British Colonial Planning and Re-Planning of Khartoum, the Sudan, 1898-1914’; Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Elbourne
09/2000 - 05/2005
Bachelors of Fine Arts, The Cooper Union, New York City, NY, USA

Publications

Monographs

The Impoverishment of the African Red Sea Littoral, c1640-1945. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Starvation and the State: Famine, Slavery and Power in Sudan, 1883-1956. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Edited Collections and Special Issues

(with Gwyn Campbell). Currencies of the Indian Ocean World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Editor. Red Sea Connectivities in the Shadow of Imperialism. Special Issue of Northeast African Studies. 17:1 (2017)

Consultancy Reports

Unequal Adaptations: A History of Environmental Change in the Sudan-Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Region. (London and Juba: Rift Valley Institute, 2021)

Epidemics in the African Red Sea Region: A History of Uneven Disease Exposure. (London and Juba: Rift Valley Institute, 2020)

Articles and Chapters

‘Poverty and The Transition to Instability: the Italian Lira in Eritrean History.’ Monetary Transitions: Currencies, Colonialism and African Societies. Karin Palaver, ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2022. 161-184

‘The History of Southern Red Sea Salt in Indian Ocean Trade.’ Cargoes in Motion: Materiality and Connectivity across the Indian Ocean. Burkhard Schnepel and Julia Verne, eds. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. 2022. 53-70

‘Horses and Power in the Southern Red Sea Region Since the Seventeenth Century.’ Animal Trade and Histories in the Indian Ocean World. Martha Chaiklin, Philip Gooding and Gwyn Campbell, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 125-147

‘The Persistence of Slavery in the Southern Red Sea Region in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.’ The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. Gwyn Campbell and Alessandro Stanziani, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 247-263

‘Small Scale Farmers, Foreign Experts, and the Dynamics of Agricultural Change in Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti before the Second World War.’ International Journal of African Historical Studies. 52:2 (2019) 217-30.

‘Introduction: The Indian Ocean World Currency System.’ Currencies of the Indian Ocean World. Steven Serels and Gwyn Campbell, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 1-16

‘The Circulation of Modern Currencies and the Impoverishment of the Red Sea World, 1882-2010.’ Currencies of the Indian Ocean World. Steven Serels and Gwyn Campbell, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 141-164

‘Food Insecurity and Political Instability in the Southern Red Sea Region during the ‘Little Ice Age,’ 1650-1840.’ Famines during the ‘Little Ice Age’ (1300-1800). Dominik Collet and Maximilian Schuh, eds. New York: Springer Science, 2018. 115-129

‘Starving for Someone Else’s Fight: The First World War and Food Insecurity in the African Red Sea Region.’ Environmental Histories of the First World War. R. Tucker, T. Keller, J. McNeill, & M. Schmid, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 208-230

‘Famine and Slavery in the Southern Red Sea Region, 1887-1914.’ Bondage and the Environment in the Indian Ocean World. Gwyn Campbell, ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 227-244

‘A Worn Insecurity: Textiles, Industrialization and Colonial Rule in Eritrea during the Long Twentieth Century.’ Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures, and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean. Pedro Machado, Sarah Fee and Gwyn Campbell, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 133-156

‘Early European Colonial Rule on the African Red Sea Littoral.’ Special Issue: Red Sea Connectivities, Northeast African Studies 17, No.1 (Spring 2017) 1-23

‘Spinners, Weavers, Merchants and Wearers: The Twentieth Century Decline of the Sudanese Textile Industry.’ The Road to Two Sudans. Saud T. Ali, Stephanie Beswick, Richard Lobban and Jay Spaulding, eds. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014. 160-176

‘Indigenous Debt and the Spirit of Colonial Capitalism: Debt, Taxes and the Cash-Crop Economy in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1898-1956.’ Debt and Slavery in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Worlds. G. Campbell and A. Stanziani, eds. London: Pickering and Chatto Publishers, 2013. 133-141

‘Famines of War: The Red Sea Grain Market and Famine in Eastern Sudan, 1889-1891.’ Space Mobility and Translocal Connections across the Red Sea Area. Special Issue of Northeast African Studies. 12:1 (2012) 73-94

‘Political Landscaping: Land Registration, the Definition of Land Ownership and the Evolution of Colonial Objectives in the Sudan, 1899-1924.’ African Economic History. 35 (2007) 59-67

Grants, Awards and Scholarships

2019 - 2021
Sachbeihilfe [Individual Research Grant], Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
2018 - 2019
PRIME Fellowship, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
2016 - 2018
Research Scholarship, Gerda Henkel Stiftung
2015 - 2016
Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
2014 - 2015
Postdoctoral Fellowship, VolkswagenStiftung and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
2012 - 2014
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2011
Graduate Excellence Fellowship, Department of History, McGill University
2011
Arts Graduate Research Travel Award, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
2011
Arts Graduate Student Travel Award, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
2011
Travel Bursary, Department of History, McGill University
2010 - 2011
Doctoral Fellowship, Social Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2010
McCall/MacBain Graduate Award, Department of History, McGill University
2008
Graduate Fellowship, Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University
2008
Faculty of Arts Graduate Award, Faculty of Arts, McGill University
2007 - 2010
Research Fellowship, Indian Ocean World Center, McGill University
2007
Daisy A. Lartimer Memorial Prize in History, Department of History, McGill University
2001 - 2005
Full Tuition Scholarship, School of Fine Arts, The Cooper Union