Prof. Devika Shankar (The University of Hong Kong) joins Philip Gooding to discuss her new book, An encroaching sea : nature, sovereignty and development at the edge of British India 1860-1950(Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Scholar profile: https://history.hku.hk/staff-d-shankar/

Book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/an-encroaching-sea/F95A7CEFEDC145611A2E27DC2751A5D7

The Indian Ocean World podcast is hosted by Dr. Philip Gooding, produced and edited by Sofia O’Reilly, and published under the SSHRC-funded Partnership, “Appraising Risk, Past and Present.”

Music: “Nam Nhi-tu” by M. Nguyen Van Minh-Con.

Prof. Fiona Williamson (Singapore Management University) joins Dr. Philip Gooding to discuss her recently published monograph: Imperial Weather Meteorology, Science, and the Environment in Colonial Malaya (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025). Their discussion covers the development of meteorological science under British rule in colonial Singapore and Malaya, with real implications for how the impacts of global warming are understood in the present.

A specialist in the environmental history of southeast Asia and the wider Indian Ocean World, Prof. Williamson has particular interest in the history of the climate, meteorology and extreme weather in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Scholar profile: https://faculty.smu.edu.sg/profile/fiona-clare-williamson-1066

Book: https://faculty.smu.edu.sg/profile/fiona-clare-williamson-1066

The Indian Ocean World podcast is hosted by D. Philip Gooding, produced and edited by Sam Gleave Riemann and Sofia O’Reilly, and published under the SSHRC-funded Partnership, “Appraising Risk, Past and Present.”

Music: “Nam Nhi-tu” by M. Nguyen Van Minh-Con

Prof. Alastair McClure (Hong Kong) joins Dr. Philip Gooding (IOWC, McGill) to discuss his first monograph, Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Terror and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922 (Cambridge UP, 2024). Their conversation covers state violence, coercive mercy, and Indian national politics under the British Raj.

A specialist in South Asian legal history, Prof. McClure is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, University of Hong Kong.

Links:

University Profile: https://history.hku.hk/staff-a-mcclure/

Book: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/south-asian-history/trials-sovereignty-mercy-violence-and-making-criminal-law-british-india-18571922?site_view=desktop

The Indian Ocean World Podcast is hosted by Dr. Philip Gooding, produced and edited by Sam Gleave Riemann, and published under the SSHRC-funded Partnership "Appraising Risk, Past and Present."

Music: "Nam Nhi-tu" by M. Nguyen Van Minh-Con