Behind the Scenes – Comparative Studies in Society and History

Can We Trust the Gut?

A deliveryman for Via Lactea, dairy products company organized by Nelson Rockefeller's VBEC, brings the day's pasteurized milk to Santa Rosa de Agua, a village built on stilts on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, VE. Photos from the archive of the International Basic Economy Corporation.

Alice Yao explores the “uncomfortable middle” in the study of lactose intolerance, race, and biomedicine.

Technologies of Devotion and Religious Cooperation in the Mediterranean, 18th-20th Century

"The Shared Shrine of the Madonna of Lampedusa,“ Ignazio Fabroni, 17th century. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze.

Daniel Hershenzon explores an 18th century case of religious accommodation at the sanctuary of Santa Rosalia, Sicily.

Voices for Palestine in Egyptian Protest History

"Ain Shams University student demonstration in Ramses Street, demanding the release of all detainees" from Al-Ahram, 25 January 1972, p. 1.

Reem Abou-El-Fadl describes the conditions that made oral history necessary, and revelatory, in her research with student activists in Egypt.

Between Discipline and Wonder: On Writing the Unseen into Islamic History

Cover of ʿAlam al-Ruh (The World of the Spirit) (1947–1960), Cairo, March 1958. Owner and responsible editor: Ahmad Fahmi Abu al-Khayr. From the collections of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries; photograph by the author.

Arthur S. Zárate contemplates the role of wonder in writing history.

The Present is a Foreign Country

Basset, André, Vue des Magasins de la Compagnie des Indes à Pontichery, de l'Amiraute et de la Maison du Gouverneur, [Vers 1750-1785]. Cariatide, bibliothèque numérique de l'INHA, NUM VO Ori 12.

Renaud Morieux shares how he understands the relationship of the past to the present, and how this understanding shapes the way he analyzes colonial lists, archives, and categories as dynamic and always in-the-making.