Erin O'Halloran

I am a historian of empire and decolonisation in the modern Middle East. I am presently Principal Investigator on a project called Gernika as Orient: Bombs, Art & Fake News at Cambridge. The project has been funded by fellowships awarded by the British Academy & European Commission (Marie Sklodowska Curie).

As a historian of empire and transnational connectivity across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe & South Asia, my research focuses on the intersection of colonial violence, media disinformation, art & visual culture as connecting threads between these regions in the mid-20th century.

Before coming to Cambridge I lectured in International History at the University of Toronto and taught modern Middle Eastern History & Politics at Oxford, where I completed my DPhil. I also spent two years as an affiliate of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University.

In broad terms my research interests include the political, social, and military history of the global 20th century; the role of art, archaeology, ancient history, and mythology in modern projects of Empire and nation-state formation; and transnational connections between the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South Asia across imperial, internationalist, and postcolonial frameworks.

My new book, East of Empire, explores the many levels of connection and interaction between Egypt and India as they both sought independence from Britain between the 1920s and 1940s.