About Christopher Rose

Christopher S Rose is a social historian of medicine focusing on Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the 19th and 20th century. He is currently contingent faculty in History at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, and a Visiting Instructor in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He researches the impacts and social perceptions of diseases and epidemic events. His monograph project, Home Front Egypt: Famine, Disease, and Death During the Great War examines the link between imperial governance, food shortages, disease, and social unrest among peasants and the urban poor. He is also interested in the link between imperialism and epidemics, and in tropical and colonial/imperial medicine. He has taught courses on the history of medicine and disease, the history of the Middle East and North Africa from the Rise of Islam to the present day, and other topics in imperial and world history. Keen listeners may recognize his voice from the podcast 15 Minute History, which he co-founded in 2012 and hosted for 8 years.

Christopher S. Rose is a social historian of medicine focusing on Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean in the 19th and 20th century. He currently (spring 2022) teaches History at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Christopher:

Charles Vidich, "Germs at Bay: Politics, Public Health, and American Quarantine" (Praeger, 2021)

February 3, 2022

Germs at Bay

Charles Vidich
Hosted by Christopher Rose

"Quarantine, as an invention of man, is the most primitive and universal instrument of defense against contagious disease epidemics. Almost universal…

Kyle J. Anderson, "The Egyptian Labor Corps: Race, Space, and Place in the First World War" (U Texas Press, 2021)

January 12, 2022

The Egyptian Labor Corps

Kyle J. Anderson
Hosted by Christopher Rose

During World War I, the British Empire enlisted half a million young men, predominantly from the countryside of Egypt, in the Egyptian Labor Corps (EL…

Andrew T. Jarboe, "Indian Soldiers in World War I: Race and Representation in an Imperial War" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

December 1, 2021

Indian Soldiers in World War I

Andrew T. Jarboe
Hosted by Christopher Rose

More than one million Indian soldiers were deployed during World War I, serving in the Indian army as part of Britain's imperial war effort. These men…

Andrew Farrand, "The Algerian Dream: Youth and the Quest for Dignity" (New Degree Press, 2021)

November 15, 2021

The Algerian Dream

Andrew Farrand
Hosted by Christopher Rose

"Algeria is different." Africa's largest country is a place that few western academics have studied or been able to travel to. The modern nation, forg…

Justin K. Stearns, "Revealed Sciences: The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

November 5, 2021

Revealed Sciences

Justin K. Stearns
Hosted by Christopher Rose

Islam's contributions to the natural sciences has long been recognized within the Euro-American academy, however, such studies tend to include one of …

Raphael Cormack, "Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring 20s" (Norton, 2021)

November 2, 2021

Midnight in Cairo

Raphael Cormack
Hosted by Christopher Rose

One of the world’s most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and ’30s, a vibran…

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, "ReOrienting Histories of Medicine: Encounters Along the Silk Roads" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

August 16, 2021

ReOrienting Histories of Medicine

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim
Hosted by Christopher Rose

There's been a lot of resurgent interest in the Silk Routes lately, particularly looking at the cultural, political, and economic connections between …

Mark Farha, "Lebanon: The Rise and Fall of a Secular State under Siege" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

August 11, 2021

Lebanon

Mark Farha
Hosted by Christopher Rose

Why has secularism faced such challenges in the Middle East and in Lebanon in particular? In light of dominating headlines about the spread of sectari…

Angela Williams, "Hip Hop Harem: Women, Rap and Representation in the Middle East" (Peter Lang, 2020)

August 6, 2021

Hip Hop Harem

Angela Williams
Hosted by Christopher Rose

Although hip hop culture has widely been acknowledged as a global phenomenon that has spread far beyond its roots in American African-Caribbean-Latinx…

Ryan J. Lynch, "Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography: The Futuh Al-Buldan of Al-Baladhuri" (I. B. Tauris, 2021)

July 28, 2021

Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography

Ryan J. Lynch
Hosted by Christopher Rose

Of the available sources for Islamic history published before the 9th century of the Christian Era, few are of greater importance than Kitab Futuh al-…

Marie Favereau, "The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World" (Harvard UP, 2021)

June 29, 2021

The Horde

Marie Favereau
Hosted by Christopher Rose

The Mongols are widely known for one thing: conquest. Through the ages, word "horde" has entered the English lexicon with a negative connotation, conj…

Matthew S. Gordon, "Ahmad ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868–884" (Oneworld Academic, 2021)

June 25, 2021

Ahmad ibn Tulun

Matthew S. Gordon
Hosted by Christopher Rose

Ahmad Ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868-884 (Oneworld Academic, 2021), by Matthew S. Gordon (Miami University (Ohio)) is an innovative look a…

ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, "A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years" (NYU Press, 2021)

June 21, 2021

A Physician on the Nile

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, trans.
Hosted by Christopher Rose

A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years (NYU Press, 2021) is a unique text that will fascinate specialists and…