James De Lorenzi
Ph.D. Candidate (ABD)
jade@sas.upenn.edu
Education
B.A. in History, University of Texas at Austin; M.A. in History, University of Pennsylvania
Fields (primary field of specialization listed first)
Comparative Empires; Modern Northeast Africa; Europe in a Wider World
Dissertation
"Sacred Words, Imperial Journeys, and Global Scholars: Historiography and Cosmopolitanism in the Red Sea World, 1800-1936"
Dissertation Committee
Personal Statement
My dissertation explores the cosmopolitan intellectual life of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the age of modern empires, using Amharic historiography and travel writing to show how urban reformers and religious scholars articulated culturally-authentic visions of global modernity. After examining how the coming of the book, new forms of literacy, and European knowledge transformed local public culture and its institutional networks, I engage current debates about the genealogy of history and the circulation of ideas in the imperial age, following Ranajit Guha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Chapters of this project are forthcoming in the Journal of World History and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
More generally, I am interested in world history and historiography, imperial cultures, consumption, the Indian Ocean, E. P. Thompson, the Ottoman Empire, and mission Christianity.
