Samuel Ostroff is a joint Doctoral Candidate in History and South Asia Studies at Penn. He is currently writing his dissertation on the economic, environmental and imperial aspects of the Indian Ocean pearl trade in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the field of urban studies, his work focuses on port-cities and urban networking across oceanic and global spaces in the early modern world. Aside from his dissertation research, Samuel is interested in urban planning, transportation, and policy in the global cities of the 21st century. Prior to Penn, Samuel completed his B.A. in History at Bucknell University and M.A. in Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.