In the very first episode of the “Off the Road” podcast, Gilberto and Jannis have a chance to sit down with Corey Ross, director of the institute and professor of European Global Studies at the Europainstitut of the University of Basel. We speak with Corey about the intellectual paths that led him to environmental history, the development of the field in the United States and Europe, and the relationship between empire, water, and the environment. At the center of the conversation is Corey’s latest, brilliant book, Liquid Empire: Water and Power in the Colonial World (Princeton University Press, 2024), which examines how water management and large-scale infrastructure projects shaped European imperial ambitions and continue to influence contemporary environmental challenges. We also discuss utopian engineering visions such as Atlantropa and Transaqua and reflect on the opportunities and challenges of teaching environmental history to students deeply concerned about the climate crisis and environmental change.

You can get Corey’s book from Princeton UP here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691211442/liquid-empire

“Off the Road: A Podcast about the Environmental Humanities” is produced by Gilberto Mazzoli, Jannis Buschky, and Jorge Lastra Cerda.

Funding is provided by the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the European Union (ERC, OffRoad, 101044725). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.