Benjamin Claude Brower
Assistant Professor — Ph.D., 2005, Cornell University
Contact
- E-mail: benbrower@utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-475-6813
- Office: GAR 0.116
- Office Hours: Spring 2011 - M 10:15-11:45 a.m., W 3-4 p.m.
- Campus Mail Code: B7000
Biography
I came to UT in 2009. Previously I taught at Texas A&M University and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. (2007-08).
Research interests
I am a historian of modern France and its colonies with a focus on Algeria. My research examines the colonial situation, and its impact on the societies of the colonized and colonizers. My first book, A Desert Named Peace: The Violence of French Empire in the Algerian Sahara, 1844-1902 (2009) tells the story of colonial violence in nineteenth-century Algeria. I am working on a second book project entitled “The Colonial Hajj, 1798-1962.” This explores the history of pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places made by Mulisms subject to French colonial rule. My broader research interests include European imperialism, questions of secularism and Islam, and understanding violence in history.
Courses taught
Writing Violence in History, French Empire: The "West" and "Islam"
Awards, Honors
My research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the French American Foundation, the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research.
