معرفی
Michael Christopher Low is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. He specializes in late Ottoman Empire, Arabian Peninsula history, Indian Ocean World studies, and environmental history. His research focuses on the intersections of empire, environment, and global networks, particularly through the lens of the Hajj pilgrimage and water infrastructure in the Middle East.
Low earned his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University (2015). Before joining Utah, he was an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University (2015–2022). His major work, *Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj* (2020), won the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Book Award and explores Ottoman modernization and global health dynamics in the Hijaz region. He is currently working on a new book project, *Saltwater Kingdoms*, examining desalination’s environmental and energy impacts in Arabia.
Key affiliations include the Environmental Humanities Program (as Research Professor, 2023–2025), NYU Abu Dhabi (Senior Humanities Fellow, 2020–2021), and Koç University (Visiting Fellowship, 2016). He serves as Series Editor for *Transregional Middle Easts* and on editorial boards for journals like *Journal of Global History*.
Awards include the Alice Hamilton Prize (2016) for environmental history, and grants from Columbia University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the William Lind Foundation. His research spans Ottoman public health policies, colonial Hajj logistics, and the hydraulic history of the Saudi state.
