“Essentially cyclonic:” Race, gender, and disaster in modern mauritius
Rouphail, Robert M.
Loading…
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/105602
Description
Title
“Essentially cyclonic:” Race, gender, and disaster in modern mauritius
Author(s)
Rouphail, Robert M.
Issue Date
2019-06-18
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Brennan, James
Burton, Antoinette
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Brennan, James
Burton, Antoinette
Committee Member(s)
Barnes, Teresa
Wilson, Roderick
Allen, Richard
Department of Study
History
Discipline
History
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
African History
Indian Ocean History
Environmental History
Mauritius
Abstract
“Essentially Cyclonic” argues that tropical cyclones were a constituent and proportional force for historical change in twentieth century Mauritius. Whether as moments of acute catastrophe and as specters of future destruction, this dissertation shows that landfalling storms, the months of reconstruction efforts that followed, and the policies meant to mitigate cyclones’ effects were moments and processes that shaped ideas about racial belonging, gendered personhood, and diasporic community. Drawing upon French, English, and Mauritian Creole-language sources ranging from meteorological and soil studies, to oral histories collected in Mauritius, popular newspapers, songs, and the papers of state bureaucracies, this dissertation shows that these storms transformed the lives of everyday Mauritians: they changed how small Indo-Mauritian agriculturalists planted sugar, where Afro-descendant Mauritians lived, and how the late-colonial state surveilled women’s bodies in response to Malthusian anxieties over population control and ecological stability.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
