Eve M. Troutt Powell

Eve Troutt Powell is a historian of the modern Middle East, focusing on Egypt, Sudan and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, whose works illuminate questions of race and slavery at the juncture of Arab and African societies. Her book, A Different Shade of Colonialism: Egypt, Great Britain, and the Mastery of the Sudan (2003), casts light on the region's multiple sources of racial thought, bypassing the usual European-inspired categories. Her most recent work, Tell This in My Memory: Stories of Enslavement in Egypt, Sudan, and the Late Ottoman Empire (2012), uses memoirs by slave masters and former slaves to mount an argument about the differing impact and memory of slavery in these different contexts. The author of many essays and articles, Troutt Powell is also notable for the stylistic elegance of her work. One of the pioneers of the history of African and Middle Eastern slavery, Troutt Powell has been the recipient of many prestigious fellowships, including a MacArthur award in 2003.