Ottoman Dress and Design in the West

  Those of you who have known me for a long, long time might remember that I once wrote a proposal for a book on how Islam influenced Western culture in fundamental ways.(1) Those of you who’ve known me even longer know that my dissertation was titled Building the Orient of the Imagination: Excess, Confusion…

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Telling Women’s History: Three Questions and an Answer with Jason Porath

I must admit that I fan-girled hard when Jason Porath agreed to be part of this interview series. I’ve followed his work since 2014, when my then agent called him to my attention. Porath’s Rejected Princesses, and its sequel, Tough Mothers, began in a discussion with his Dreamworks’ co-workers over what historical woman was least…

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Telling Women’s History: Three Questions and an Answer with Adrienne Mayor

I first “met” Adrienne Mayor on the late lamented group history blog Wonders & Marvels, which both of us contributed to on a regular basis.  I always looked forward to Adrienne’s posts. She wrote about quirky and fascinating topics that straddled the worlds of classical history and history of science: biological warfare in the ancient…

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