Abigail E. Owen
Director of Education, Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education & Research
Assistant Teaching Professor, History
Contact
Education
Ph.D.: Columbia University, 2011
Projects
Owen's current projects in the Department of History both stem from her dissertation, Hidden Waters: Groundwater Histories of Iran and the Mediterranean. The first is a multi-author edited translation and commentary on al-Karaji’s 11th-century Arabic text, Treatise on the Extraction of Hidden Waters. The second project is a revision of the dissertation and its arguments, focusing on the perception of expert cultures of groundwater management, and implications for international development projects that focus on water and development. See a synopsis of the dissertation on the Dissertation Reviews website. Owen is also:
- Faculty Advisor to the Undergraduate Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program
- Co-organizer of the 2019-20 research seminar series, "Bread and Water: Access, Belonging, and Environmental Justice in the City". This year-long research program is funded as a Sawyer Seminar through a grant from the A.W. Mellon Foundation.
- Co-Editor, Knowledge in Translation: Global Patterns of Scientific Exchange, 1000–1800 CE University of Pittsburgh press, 2018
- Co-convener of the Pitt-CMU Environmental Humanities Research Seminar
Courses Taught
- 79-315 The Politics of Water: Global Controversies, Past and Present
- 79-283 Hungry World: Food and Famine in Global Perspective
- 79-336 Introduction to Environmental Ideas
- 79-336 Oil and Water: Mideast Perspectives on Environmental History
- 66-119 Grand Challenge Interdisciplinary Freshman Seminar: Feeding the World, Feeding Ourselves
Department Member Since: 2016