La Mer Interieure: Empire and the Environmental Imaginary in French North Africa, 1860-85
As part of its Brown Bag Talks Lunchtime Series, the UC Center for Historical Research will host Tyson Luneau from the University at Albany, presenting "La Mer Interieure: Empire and the Environmental Imaginary in French North Africa, 1860-85" on Wednesday, March 10 at 12:30 p.m.
In 1878, Captain François Élie Roudaire formally proposed the creation of an artificial sea in the middle of the Sahara, flooding a series of saline depressions with water from the Mediterranean. What French understandings of the desert informed the subsequent debates around this massive environmental transformation? Though it was largely abandoned by 1885, the Sahara Sea project reveals a fervent colonial impulse to remake unfamiliar landscapes in France’s own image, for both commercial and aesthetic purposes.
The presentation will be livestreamed on the Center for Historical Research Facebook Page as well as via Zoom.
Contact Us
David Wittner
