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The Appraising Risk Partnership

A Historical Database of Climatic Crises in the Indian Ocean World

The Historical Database ↗

Maps and Visualizations ↗

One of the goals of the Appraising Risk partnership is to utilize data collected from diverse specialties and disciplines to analyze and visualize the complex relationship between environment, ecology, culture and history in the Indian Ocean World.

The IOW Podcast ↗

The Indian Ocean World Podcast seeks to educate and inform its listeners on topics concerning the relationship between humans and the environment throughout the history of the Indian Ocean World.


Our Project

The Appraising Risk Partnership is an international collaboration of scholars and researchers dedicated to exploring the critical role of climatic crisis in the past and future of the Indian Ocean World. With generous support from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the partnership seeks to create a comprehensive spatial and temporal database of human-environment interaction and interdependence during periods of climatic change.


Latest from the Partnership:


The Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC) is a research initiative and resource base established to promote the study of the history, economy, and cultures of the lands and peoples of the Indian Ocean world (IOW) – from China to Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Our most recent podcast:

Nienke Boer – "The Briny South" The Indian Ocean World Podcast

This week, Dr. Nienke Boer (Sydney) joins our producer, Sam Gleave Riemann, to discuss her 2023 book, The Briny South: Displacement and Sentiment in the Indian Ocean World (Duke UP). They discuss the connections between post-colonial and ocean studies, feelings and their representations, and South Africa and the broader Indian Ocean World. Dr. Boer has been Lecturer in World Literatures at the University of Sydney since early 2023. She was previously Assistant Professor of Humanities (Literature) at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. The Briny South is her first monograph. Links: University Profile: https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/nienke-boer.html/ The Briny South: https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-briny-south The Indian Ocean World Podcast is hosted by Dr. Philip Gooding, produced 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

Cover image from Pexels