Steven Serels

Dr. Steven Serels is a historian specializing in the environmental, economic, and social history of the Red Sea region, particularly the African littoral. He currently serves as a Research Fellow at the Leibniz Center for Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO) in Berlin, leading the DFG-funded project 'A New History of Infectious Diseases in the Southern Red Sea Region' (2019-2022). Previously, he held positions as an Associated Research Fellow at ZMO (2014-2017), Project Leader at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (2018-2019), and Visiting Fellow at Harvard University (2017-2019).

His educational background includes:

• PhD in History, McGill University (2012), dissertation: 'Feasting on Famines: Food Insecurity and the Making of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1883-1956' (supervised by Gwyn Campbell and Elizabeth Elbourne)
• MA in History, McGill University (2007), thesis: 'Town Planning for Empire: British Colonial Planning and Re-Planning of Khartoum, the Sudan, 1898-1914' (supervised by Elizabeth Elbourne)
• BFA, The Cooper Union (2005)

Dr. Serels' research investigates how environmental change, famine, slavery, and colonial economic policies shaped societies in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean worlds from the 17th to 20th centuries. His work bridges environmental determinism and political agency, examining how local populations navigated ecological crises amid imperial expansion. Key contributions include analyzing monetary transitions, salt trade networks, and the socioecological roots of food insecurity.

His 15 most recent publications reveal consistent thematic threads: the interplay of climate, disease, and power in the African Red Sea region; the long-term impoverishment effects of colonial monetary systems; and the persistence of unfree labor structures. Articles span environmental history (e.g., Little Ice Age impacts), economic history (currency systems), and social history (slavery), demonstrating interdisciplinary rigor through archival work across German, British, and Canadian collections.

His scholarly impact is recognized through major awards:

• DFG Individual Research Grant (2019-2021)
• PRIME Fellowship from DAAD (2018-2019)
• Gerda Henkel Stiftung Research Scholarship (2016-2018)
• Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-2016)
• VolkswagenStiftung Fellowship (2014-2015)

While not listed as supervising students, Dr. Serels has secured extensive research funding through competitive grants, often collaborating with institutions like Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and McGill's Indian Ocean World Center. His consultancy reports for the Rift Valley Institute demonstrate applied scholarship on epidemics and environmental change in the Horn of Africa. Current work focuses on historical disease ecology through ZMO's 'State and Society' research program.

He actively participates in ZMO's collaborative networks including 'Thinkers and Theorizing from the South' and 'De:link // Re:link,' contributing to transregional perspectives on the Red Sea region. His DFG project integrates environmental history with medical anthropology to trace infectious disease pathways in the Southern Red Sea littoral.