U.C. Davis History Department - Faculty

Diana Davis
Associate Professor

E: geovet@ucdavis.edu
T: 530-752-0802
O: 3225 SSH

Academic Biography

Professor Davis holds a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, 1994, and a PhD in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley, 2001.

Over the last decade, she has conducted research in Morocco, France and the UK with fellowships from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS Ryskamp), and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Research Interests

Environmental history, veterinary history, colonialism, political economy, Middle East and North Africa, pastoral societies and arid lands.

Current Research: My new book project, "Imperialism and Environmental History in the Middle East" (Cambridge University Press) analyzes the complex relationships between imperialism and environmental narratives in the Arab Middle East from Egypt to Syria.

Selected Publications

Davis, D. K. (2007) Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa. Ohio University Press, Series in Ecology and History. Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Prize (ASEH), the Meridian Book Award (AAG), and the James Blaut Award (CAPE).

Davis, D. K. (2008) "Brutes, Beasts and Empire: Veterinary Medicine and Environmental Policy in French North Africa and British India," Journal of Historical Geography, 34(2): 242-267.

Davis, D. K. (2006) "Neoliberalism, Environmentalism and Agricultural Restructuring in Morocco," The Geographical Journal, 172(2): 88-105.

Davis, D. K. (2005) "Potential Forests: Degradation Narratives, Science and Environmental Policy in Protectorate Morocco, 1912-1956," Environmental History, 10(2): 211-238.

Davis, D. K. (2004) "Eco-Governance in French Algeria: Environmental History, Policy, and Colonial Administration," the Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, 32:328-345. Winner of the Millstone Prize.