Abigail Owen
- Mellon Publication Project Postdoctoral Fellow 2016-2017
Currently Assistant Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University Department of History
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 Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies
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
Education & Training
- PhD, Columbia University 2011
Research Interests
My current projects both stem from my 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.