The History Department congratulates Professor Dale Stahl on his recently-awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. The CU Board of Regents awarded Professor Stahl on April 15, 2024, a wonderful culmination of his years of study and dedication. Professor Stahl’s areas of expertise include Environmental History & Middle Eastern and Islamic History, and he expertly brings his vast historical knowledge and passion for teaching into the classroom. An engaging, thoughtful scholar and teacher, Professor Stahl has certainly earned this tenure award.
Professor Stahl has reached another milestone in the form of his book manuscript. Titled Two Rivers Entangled: An Ecological History of the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin, the manuscript is currently under contract with Stanford University Press. Stahl’s book examines water engineering in the Tigris-Euphrates basin, and introduces an analytical lens of a “poetics of engineering” in which “engineers evoke through their plans and studies an imaginative awareness of a future environment, one that has been remade through engineering techniques.” I had the pleasure of taking a course with Professor Stahl my first semester in the graduate program, while he was still in the editing process for the manuscript, so it is especially exciting to announce that his book will be available next year. Though a publication date has yet to be set, keep an eye out for the text in 2025!
In the 2024-2025 academic year, Professor Stahl will be on sabbatical to further expand upon his “poetics of engineering” in preparation for his planned second book. His research will focus on “how engineers have imagined large-scale environmental transformation and persuaded others of the feasibility and benefits of such projects.” Beyond this, Professor Stahl looks forward to developing new courses for programs in History, International Studies, and Climate Change Studies, particularly as they relate to pressing environmental issues such as water, energy, and climate.
The Department offers many congratulations to Professor Stahl on his achievements! We are excited to see these new areas of study come to fruition, and our students will greatly benefit from his continuing teaching career.
-- Sophie Almon