Globalizing Histories of Science and Nature: Tracing Networks of Power in the Arctic
Friday, January 3, 2014: 3:50 PM
Marriott Balcony B (Marriott Wardman Park)
Andrew Stuhl, Bucknell University
Despite common interests in transnational and imperial turns, environmental history and history of science have often operated in isolation of one another. I present possibilities for integrating and globalizing histories of science and nature by considering a case from Arctic history. Between 1850 and 1900, Russian and British fur empires retreated from northern North America just as the U.S. commercial whaling industry expanded northward. The creation of a series of whaling outposts on the north slope of Alaska and northwestern Canada allowed for more thorough scientific travel in the region, providing a proving ground for young academics interested in careers in science. By tracing shifts in imperial, economic, intellectual, and ecological networks, historians reveal connections between the Arctic and the world, between place and power, and between histories of science and histories of nature.
