What I am suggesting here is that in imagining the Indian Ocean world we need to factor in movement across time and space of people, things, and ideas. At the same time, we also need to acknowledge the continuing significance of the longue durée in the Indian Ocean region, those historical culture areas that occupy the attention of most historians. If we can manage to weave these very different perspectives together successfully, we might just be able to imagine an Indian Ocean World that makes sense historically and contemporaneously to both scholars and general public, whether they are inhabitants of the region or outsiders, like me.

Delivering Web-based information can be a static process without teaching tips that encourage students to process the information presented, and, as Alpers suggests in the above epigraph,  "imagine an Indian Ocean World that makes sense historically and contemporaneously."

• Teaching the Indian Ocean Across Time and Space offers strategies for using the Scholar Voices resource created during the "Indian Ocean: Cradle of Globalization Institute" as well as additional Web-based materials developed by Institute Fellows.
• Fellow pages include the historical role of port cities in the creation of the Indian Ocean world, cartographic efforts to map the Indian Ocean, gender roles and the relationships between men and women in the Eastern Indian Ocean, and the Indian Ocean slave trade, among others. 
• Links for each of the twenty-one visiting scholar presentations are in the index, or may be reached using the links at the bottom of this page. 

• What do the various scholars suggest is the best way to comprehend the Indian Ocean World as a unit of analysis? 
• Is there regional unity within the Indian Ocean World? 
• What connects peoples and regions? What divides them? 
• Which realms of the littoral are neglected and which command the most attention? Why? 
• Several scholars note the inspiration of Fernand Braudel as a motive for conceptualizing the spatial and geo-historical context of the Indian Ocean littoral. Who was Braudel and why is his perspective significant? 
• How does the work of contemporary scholars challenge earlier Eurocentric views? 

Sugata Bose ~ Bose contends that Rabindranath Tagore's travels in the early years of the twentieth century to find Indians overseas and collect source materials for his work was also a search for greater India. Research Tagore's life and work. Do you concur with Bose's assessment? 

T. J. Wilkinson and Andrew Watson are concerned with the ecological exchanges in the Indian Ocean World. Compare Wilkinson's views on the consequences of Indian Ocean weather patterns with Watson's on the transmission of crops. 

Howard Spodek ~ What questions does Spodek raise as essential to the study of world history? What applications do these queries have to Indian Ocean studies?

Edward Alpers ~ Read the full text of Alper's paper. What does it take, he argues, to "come to grips with the Indian Ocean"? Why? 

What conclusions does Nancy Pinto-Orton in Traditional Boat Building in Gujarat: An Interactive Model of a Craft Specialization reach concerning the relationship between boat building and community building? 

How might the questions Roxani Margariti poses about Aden as a major Indian Ocean entrepot, be applied to other port cities of the littoral? 

What perspective does Pia Brancaccio's research of art and material culture from India's Deccan plateau in the first millennium CE share with Kurt Behrendt's picture of international trade networks between the Red Sea, Gujarat, and Gandhara?

Explore the links on the pages of Hal Schiffman and Alwiya Omar on language. How does the information expand your comprehension of the relationship between language, culture and geography in the littoral? 

Alan Heston ~ View the earth at night image and PowerPoint slides on Heston's page, then briefly research current theories of development economics. What key points do the image and tables illustrate concerning the relationship between "the West" and "The Rest"? 

Fellow's Curriculum Project sites:

Indian Ocean Diaspora in World Systems Perspective by Brad Lyman, Baltimore City Community College, provides context and a useful Introduction to world systems analysis – Brad’s site contains some fine maps.

Debora Johnson-Ross, McDaniel College, posted an essay Identity In the Indian Ocean, which includes questions that encourage students to think about identity and Indian Ocean world.

The Indian Ocean Slave Trade ~ Opolot Okia, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provides images and poses interesting questions that encourage students to think about the Indian Ocean slave trade using the more familiar Atlantic trade as a model.

In Charting the Indian Ocean from Zanzibar to Sumatra, Penelope Campbell, Agnes Scott College, offers an overview of major cartographic efforts to map the world, including the Indian Ocean or, as in the case of Jan Huygen van Linschoten, to portray the sea routes that lay between Europe and Asia. Has an excellent selection of historical mapping images and a brief glossary.

James Brennan, Northwestern University – Port Cities: The Western Indian Ocean site contains images and  links to major port cities of the Western Indian Ocean and East Africa.

Brian McKnight provides a solid introduction to McNeill, Hodgson, and the Teaching of World History. What cultural “baggage” does the Mercator projection carry?

Carol A. Keller’s look at Madras as a case study suggests different ways of viewing the development of English maritime and commercial power in the region. 

Explore Laura J. Mitchell, University of California, Irvine, two projects, Women and Men in the Indian Ocean World: Temporary Marriage, and  PowerPoint slides on Slavery in South Africa, in order to answer questions such as, What are the variety of economic roles played by women at various times and places? and, What enabled Europeans to tap into a rich, pre-exisiting trade network?  What role does gender play in that ability? 

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