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The continent for science is also a continent for the humanities. Despite having no indigenous human population, Antarctica has been imagined in powerful, innovative, and sometimes disturbing ways that reflect politics and culture much further north. Antarctica has become an important source of data for natural scientists working to understand global climate change. As this book shows, the tools of literary studies, history, archaeology, and more, can likewise produce important insights into the nature of the modern world and humanity more broadly.
The continent for science is also a continent for the humanities. Despite having no indigenous human population, Antarctica has been imagined in powerful, innovative, and sometimes disturbing ways that reflect politics and culture much further north. Antarctica has become an important source of data for natural scientists working to understand global climate change. As this book shows, the tools of literary studies, history, archaeology, and more, can likewise produce important insights into the nature of the modern world and humanity more broadly.
List of contents
Introduction - Antarctica: A Continent for the Humanities by Peder Roberts, Lize-Marié van der Watt and Adrian Howkins. - PART I: THE HEROIC AND THE MUNDANE. - 1. Changing the Subject: Antarctic Diaries and Heroic Reputations by Elizabeth Leane. - 2. Beriberi at Kerguelen: A case study of international Antarctic co-operation 1901-1903 by Cornelia Lüdecke. - PART II: ALTERNATIVE ANTARCTICS. - 3. So far, so close. Approaching experience in the study of the encounter between sealers and the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica, 19th century) by Andrés Zarankin and Melisa A. Salerno. - 4. The white (supremacist) continent: Antarctica and fantasies of Nazi survival by Peder Roberts. - 5. The whiteness of Antarctica: race and South Africa's Antarctic history by Lize-Marié van der Watt and Sandra Swart. - PART III: WHOSE ANTARCTIC?. - Dag Avango. - 7. Finding Place in Antarctica by Alessandro Antonello. - 8. Scott's Shadow: "Proto Territory" in Contemporary Antarctica by Elena Glasberg. - PART IV: VALUING ANTARCTIC SCIENCE. - 9. SCAR as a healing process? Reflections on science and polar politics in the Cold War and beyond. The Case of Norway by Stian Bones. - 10. Emerging from the shadow of science: some thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for Antarctic history by Adrian Howkins. - Concluding Reflections by Aant Elzinga
About the author
Peder Roberts is Researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. His previous books include
The European Antarctic: Science and Strategy in Scandinavia and the
British Empire and The Surveillance Imperative: Geosciences during the Cold War and Beyond (with Simone Turchetti).
Lize-Marié van der Watt is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Arctic Research Centre at Umeå University (Arcum), Sweden. Her research publications include socio-environmental and political histories of South Africa and Antarctica. Her current work focuses on the global context of environmental and political change in the Arctic.
Adrian Howkins is Associate Professor at Colorado State University, USA. His previous publications include
The Polar Regions: An Environmental History (2015), as well as articles and essays in The Journal of Historical Geography, Osiris, and Environmental History. He is a PI on the NSF-funded McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research project in Antarctica.
Summary
The continent for science is also a continent for the humanities. Despite having no indigenous human population, Antarctica has been imagined in powerful, innovative, and sometimes disturbing ways that reflect politics and culture much further north. Antarctica has become an important source of data for natural scientists working to understand global climate change. As this book shows, the tools of literary studies, history, archaeology, and more, can likewise produce important insights into the nature of the modern world and humanity more broadly.
Additional text
“The 13 contributing authors provide not only an impressive overview of humanities and social science approaches toward the study of Antarctica, but also clearly demonstrate that Antarctic research is relevant to more than the natural sciences. … Antarctica and the Humanities is recommended for any historian interested in Antarctica, but it would also appeal to a maritime historian interested in more than just ships and maritime technology or trade.” (Ingo Heidbrink, The Northern Mariner, Vol. 27 (1), 2017)
“Congratulations to Peder Roberts and his team for developing the concept of representing the humanities in Antarctica with a collection of essays … . This hardcover first edition of Antarctica and the humanities is beautifully presented, with endnotes following each chapter, with maps and illustrations, and an index for the diverse subject matter. It has been deservedly well-received. It is a book which invites further discussion. It is, and will continue to be, a valuable reference.” (Anna Lucas, Polar Record, 2017)
Report
"The 13 contributing authors provide not only an impressive overview of humanities and social science approaches toward the study of Antarctica, but also clearly demonstrate that Antarctic research is relevant to more than the natural sciences. ... Antarctica and the Humanities is recommended for any historian interested in Antarctica, but it would also appeal to a maritime historian interested in more than just ships and maritime technology or trade." (Ingo Heidbrink, The Northern Mariner, Vol. 27 (1), 2017)
"Congratulations to Peder Roberts and his team for developing the concept of representing the humanities in Antarctica with a collection of essays ... . This hardcover first edition of Antarctica and the humanities is beautifully presented, with endnotes following each chapter, with maps and illustrations, and an index for the diverse subject matter. It has been deservedly well-received. It is a book which invites further discussion. It is, and will continue to be, a valuable reference." (Anna Lucas, Polar Record, 2017)
