Mark wagner awarded fellowship at netherlands institute for advanced study

Mark Wagner, professor of Arabic in the LSU Department of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures, has been awarded a fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Wagner will undertake the research project titled, "The Rothschilds of Arabia and Africa: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Mercantile Empire Under the British Raj."

"The NIAS fellowship will provide me the sustained time to make significant progress on a new research project," said Wagner. "Interdisciplinary environments such as these are ideal for breaking ground beyond our disciplinary silos."

He aims to write a history of the Messa family of Aden and its network of satellite communities. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Aden sat astride a crucial artery of world commerce and a local Jewish family, the Messas, profited handsomely as the main suppliers of the British army.

The Messa family played a large role in shaping a distinctive Adeni Jewish culture that was keenly attuned to contemporary ideas concerning bourgeois respectability, colonial constructions of race and class, and debates over modernity and gender within the wider Jewish world. Years of bitter litigation between heirs brought an end to the family business. The rise of Jewish, Yemeni, and pan-Arab nationalisms sounded these communities' death-knell.

"Professor Wagner's prestigious NIAS fellowship is an outstanding scholarly achievement that contributes to showcase our faculty's talent and brings due recognition to our department and to the College of Humanities & Social Sciences," said Rafael Orozco, chair of the Department of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures.

NIAS Fellowship allows Wagner to work on his project for a period of 5 months in the academic year 2023. He will become part of a carefully selected community of independent thinkers, in a collaborative environment where the space is created to ask new questions beyond disciplinary boundaries. NIAS Fellows are selected through a highly competitive external review process on the basis of the quality of the research proposal.

About the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences is one of the oldest Advanced Study Institutes in Europe committed to promoting interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research for established and early career scholars. It is an intellectual haven where scholars, artists, writers and journalists come together in an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment. For more information, visit nias.knaw.nl.

About the LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences

The LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences positions students, faculty, and staff to be visionary leaders in their respective fields, a tradition of excellence that began with the college's inception in 1908. For more news and information about the LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences, visit hss.lsu.edu.

Provided by Louisiana State University