Extreme Environments and the Production of Scientific Knowledge: The History of Science in Antarctica (2018)
McCahey, Daniella (Author)
Haynes, Douglas Melvin (Advisor)
University of California, Irvine
Haynes, Douglas Melvin
Physical Details: 374 pp.
Language: English
Situating Antarctica within the greater context of the global history of science is at the core of my dissertation. Drawing from archives in New Zealand (Christchurch and Wellington) and the United Kingdom (London and Cambridge), my dissertation examines the history of modern Antarctic science in the late 1950s-early 1960s. Comprised of six chapters, my dissertation begins by contextualizing Antarctic science within both the historic British interest in the region and the organization of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58). The second chapter argues that the varying ways that Antarctic expeditions were funded in New Zealand and the United Kingdom reflect profoundly different visions for the future of Antarctica; one which sought to domesticate the continent and another imperial vision which viewed it as a site for practicing nationalistic, prestige granting science. Chapter Three shows that that the geographical sites of the British base at Halley Bay and New Zealand’s Scott Base, neither of which were ideal for proposed research at the respective sites, reveal clashes between the sometimes conflicting priorities of scientists and those making decisions for the bases. Chapter Four examines how science workers used behavioral and technological adaptations to do research for which their instruments had not been specifically designed. The fifth chapter studies a specific set of geological specimens gathered near the Weddell Sea, arguing that the gathering, study, and final resting place of these specimens reveal not only the roles of masculinity and British post-colonial insecurities within the scientific community, but also played an important role in the ongoing continental drift debate. The sixth chapter uses the IGY Expedition to South Georgia to explore the professionalization of glaciological science in the 1950s as well as the importance of social networks to the production of scientific knowledge.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer;
(2017)
Polskie badania polarne (zarys) / Polish Polar Research (Outline)
(/isis/citation/CBB963951811/)
Thesis
Stuhl, Andrew;
(2013)
Empires on Ice: Science, Nature, and the Making of the Arctic
(/isis/citation/CBB001567488/)
Article
Warrior, Claire;
(2013)
“On Thin Ice”: The Polar Displays at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
(/isis/citation/CBB001421586/)
Article
Sokratova, I. N.;
(2009)
Antarctic Oases: A History of Discoveries
(/isis/citation/CBB001211343/)
Chapter
Dodds, Klaus;
(2010)
Assault on the Unknown: Geopolitics, Antarctic Science and the International Geophysical Year (1957--8)
(/isis/citation/CBB001031367/)
Article
Howkins, Adrian;
(2011)
Melting Empires? Climate Change and Politics in Antarctica since the International Geophysical Year
(/isis/citation/CBB001034580/)
Book
Sörlin, Sverker;
(2013)
Science, Geopolitics and Culture in the Polar Region: Norden beyond Borders
(/isis/citation/CBB001421143/)
Article
Torrens, Hugh S.;
(2014)
Michael Denis Crane (1946--2013)
(/isis/citation/CBB001321131/)
Article
Moira White;
(2017)
Aurora and the Otago Museum: the boundary between Antarctic science and seamanship
(/isis/citation/CBB670289936/)
Chapter
H. Guly;
(2013)
Medical Geologists During the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB262491971/)
Book
Josephson, Paul R.;
(2014)
The Conquest of the Russian Arctic
(/isis/citation/CBB001422068/)
Thesis
Emelin Elizabeth Miller;
(2019)
Empire of Ice: Arctic Natural History and British Visions of the North, 1500-1800
(/isis/citation/CBB984131524/)
Article
Guly, Henry;
(2012)
Dr. Reginald Koettlitz (1860--1916): Arctic and Antarctic Explorer
(/isis/citation/CBB001200783/)
Article
Zeller, Suzanne;
(2014)
Wild Men In and Out of Science: Finding a Place in the Disciplinary Borderlands of Arctic Canada and Greenland
(/isis/citation/CBB001450342/)
Article
Hemmen, George E.;
(2010)
Royal Society Expeditions in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001022756/)
Article
Cavell, Janice;
(2013)
Publishing Sir John Franklin's Fate: Cannibalism, Journalism, and the 1881 Edition of Leopold McClintock's The Voyage of the “Fox” in the Arctic Seas
(/isis/citation/CBB001201827/)
Article
Wutzke, Ulrich;
(2001)
Ballongetragene Atmosphärensondierung---ein Glanzlicht der deutschen Polarforschung. Vor 25 Jahren wurde die erste deutsche Forschungsstation in der Antarktis eröffnet
(/isis/citation/CBB000630976/)
Book
Day, David;
(2013)
Antarctica: A Biography
(/isis/citation/CBB001421625/)
Book
Byrne, Angela;
(2013)
Geographies of the Romantic North: Science, Antiquarianism, and Travel, 1790--1830
(/isis/citation/CBB001452023/)
Book
Kathleen Davidson;
(2017)
Photography, Natural History and the Nineteenth-Century Museum: Exchanging Views of Empire
(/isis/citation/CBB301363009/)
Be the first to comment!