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The desert as laboratory: Science, state‐making, and empire in the drylands
Author(s) -
Koch Natalie
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/tran.12414
Subject(s) - desert (philosophy) , agriculture , colonialism , empire , framing (construction) , state (computer science) , middle east , geography , political science , archaeology , law , algorithm , computer science
The paper examines the long history of collaborations between actors in Arizona and the Arabian Peninsula through a genealogy of the University of Arizona’s current work on Oman’s “One Million Date Palms” initiative. Focusing on the establishment of the university’s Agriculture Experiment Station around promoting commercial agriculture to recruit white settlers in the desert southwest, it shows how state power in the US West was inextricably connected with the support of science and research institutions in collaboration with places, materials, and knowledge from the Middle East – including Omani date palms imported in the 1890s.