Scott Polar Research Institute - HCEP (Histories, Cultures, Environments and Politics) Research Seminars: archive

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# Tuesday 20th February 2024, 4.30pm - Professor Christine Bichsel, Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg

From the margins of the Third Pole: the geopolitics of cryosphere in Tajikistan

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

This paper examines the Third Pole from its margins by focussing on the case of Tajikistan. It argues that the framing of the Pamir Mountains and the related Amu Darya watershed as marginal is not primarily defined by orographic and hydrographic features, but rather results from past and present linguistic, geopolitical and ideological configurations. As a post-Soviet state, Tajikistan has a long imperial history of marginality on the mountainous fringes of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The extensive ice coverage of the Pamir Mountains, with the Fedchenko Glacier being one of the longest glaciers outside the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions, is often located far away from human settlements and difficult to access, thereby reinforcing ideas of marginality. Yet this perceived marginality of the Pamir’s cryosphere has long been coveted by Imperial Russian and Soviet scientists who produced some of the longest glaciological measurement series across the entire Third Pole region. At this point, the government of Tajikistan seems determined to move from the margins to centre stage by leveraging its cryosphere: it successfully lobbied within UN bodies to declare 2025 the International Year of Glacier Preservation and to hold the related UN Conference in its capital Dushanbe. Moreover, it achieved to proclaim March 21st as the new World Day of Glaciers, a highly symbolic date that marks Navruz – New Year’s Day in Central Asian cultural tradition. By tracing the geopolitics of cryosphere in Tajikistan from the 19th century to the present, this paper gives insight into the past and ongoing reframing of marginality in view of contemporary climate politics and the Third Pole.

# Monday 27th November 2023, 2.00pm - Professor Alejandra Mancilla, Professor Peder Roberts, Ms. Amelia Urry

Antarctic Research in the Anthropocene

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

In what ways will Antarctica matter to humanity and how is its significance changing? In this seminar we invite a panel of humanities scholars to discuss their emerging research projects and agendas. Through the prism of their experience and expertise, we hope that this create an opportunity to reflect on the shifting Antarctic imaginaries. Unprecedented rates of atmospheric warming and melting ice are headline news, but so too are the growing industrial-scale numbers of visitors to the shores of the continent. With metaphors of an empty, pristine and inhospitable wilderness seemingly out of date, how can the humanities articulate the defining questions for the region in the twenty-first century?

# Tuesday 21st November 2023, 4.15pm - Natan Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

Unpacking Colonial Ties: Self-determination in Inuit Nunangat, Canada

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 7th March 2023, 4.30pm - Alice Oates (University of Cambridge)

Placing Halley research station in the history of UK Antarctic science, 1960 to present

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 21st February 2023, 4.30pm - Christine Bichsel (University of Fribourg)

[POSTPONED] Russian and Soviet glaciology of the Third Pole

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 7th February 2023, 4.30pm - Jean de Pomereu (Marie Curie Research Fellow)

Antarctica is not one thing

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Having recently co-written ‘Antarctica: A History in 100 Objects’ with Dr. Daniella McCahey, Jean will discuss the aims of their book, as well as the questions and findings that it produced. How does one curate Antarctica in objects? What are the implications, responsibilities, advantages and shortcomings of such a project? Is it possible to be balanced?

# Tuesday 17th May 2022, 4.30pm - Alan Marcus (University of Aberdeen)

Utopian Ambitions in the High Arctic at Resolute Bay

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 8th February 2022, 4.30pm - Eleanor Peers (University of Cambridge)

Singing the Universe: Kant’s aesthetic and indigenous Siberian pop

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 25th January 2022, 4.30pm - Ilona Kater (University of Cambridge)

The changing world of reindeer: People, climate and forests in Northern Fenno-Scandia

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 7th December 2021, 4.30pm - Marc Jacobsen (Carlsberg Foundation's Internationalisation Fellow)

The Greenland Self-Government's enhanced agency in Arctic politics

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 30th November 2021, 4.30pm - Duncan Depledge (Loughborough University)

Defence and Security in the Arctic

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 2nd November 2021, 4.30pm - Peter Martin (University of Cambridge)

The ‘Origins of the Inuit’: Indigenous Marginalisation within a Transnational Debate

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 11th May 2021, 4.00pm - Olga Ulturgasheva (University of Manchester) and Barbara Bodenhorn (University of Cambridge)

Cancelled

[Cancelled] Languages of Emergency, Infrastructures of Response and Everyday Heroism in the Circumpolar North

Venue: Zoom

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 9th March 2021, 4.00pm - Samantha Saville (University of Cambridge)

Change, continuity and value in Svalbard

Venue: Zoom

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 9th February 2021, 4.00pm - Duncan Depledge (Loughborough University)

[POSTPONED] Defence and Security in the Arctic: The UK perspective

Venue: Zoom

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 26th January 2021, 4.00pm - Henry Anderson-Elliott (University of Cambridge)

Captive polar bears: politics, (re)production, and performance

Venue: Zoom

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 1st December 2020, 4.00pm - Max Jones (University of Manchester)

Exploration, Celebrity and the Making of a Transnational Hero: Fridtjof Nansen and the Fram Expedition

Venue: Zoom

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 3rd November 2020, 4.00pm - Michael Bravo (University of Cambridge)

Author Meets Critics: North Pole: Nature and Culture

Venue: Zoom

Conservation with author Michael Bravo about his latest book, ‘North Pole: Nature and Culture’, with Johanne Bruun, Nanna Kaalund, Josh Nall and John Woitkowitz.

# Tuesday 12th May 2020, 4.30pm - Olga Ulturgasheva (University of Manchester) and Barbara Bodenhorn (University of Cambridge)

[POSTPONED] Languages of Emergency, Infrastructures of Response and Everyday Heroism in the Circumpolar North

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 3rd March 2020, 4.30pm - Max Jones (University of Manchester)

[POSTPONED] Fridtjof Nansen’s FRAM expedition and the Making of a Transnational Hero

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 11th February 2020, 4.30pm - Sofia Gavrilova (University of Oxford)

Constructing the Other: representations of Arctic native communities in Russian regional museums

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 28th January 2020, 4.30pm - Morgan Seag (University of Cambridge)

Gender and 20th century Antarctic fieldwork: Constructing and dismantling the 'ice ceiling'

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 19th November 2019, 4.30pm - Ingrid Medby (Oxford Brookes University)

From Arctic statehood to self: State personnel’s articulations of Arctic identity in Norway, Iceland, and Canada

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 29th October 2019, 4.30pm - Vanessa Heggie (University of Birmingham)

Meat to Mittens: a short history of survival science and extreme physiology in the Arctic and Antarctic regions

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 14th May 2019, 4.30pm - Dorothea Wehrmann (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik)

Critical Geopolitics of the Polar Regions: An Inter-American Perspective

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 12th March 2019, 4.30pm - Nancy Wachowich (University of Aberdeen)

Mittimatalik Arnait Miqsuqtuit Collective and the Art of Sealskin Sewing

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 5th March 2019, 4.30pm - Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough (Durham University)

'As Far North As Whale Hunters Go': The Medieval Arctic Environment, Experienced and Imagined

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 29th January 2019, 4.30pm - Jon Oldfield (University of Birmingham)

The role of the Arctic in the development of Soviet climate science

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 13th November 2018, 4.30pm - Adrian Howkins (University of Bristol)

Antarctic Mosaic: Integrating Science and History in the McMurdo Dry Valleys

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 6th November 2018, 5.00pm - Richard Powell and project team (University of Cambridge)

ERC ARCTIC CULT Launch Presentation

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 30th October 2018, 4.30pm - Brice Perombelon (University of Oxford)

From animism to speculation: representations of geopower among the Dene of Tulita, Northwest Territories, Canada

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 9th October 2018, 5.00pm - Richard Powell (University of Cambridge)

BOOK LAUNCH: Studying Arctic Fields: Cultures, Practices, and Environmental Sciences

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

This event is the Launch for Richard Powell’s new book, Studying Arctic Fields: Cultures, Practices, and Environmental Sciences, and is kindly sponsored by the Independent Social Research Foundation and McGill-Queen’s University Press. Please RSVP [jenny.dunstall@spri.cam.ac.uk] to attend.

# Monday 2nd July 2018, 4.30pm - Elizabeth Leane (University of Tasmania) and Carolyn Philpott (University of Tasmania)

Singing in the Wilderness: Antarctic Sledging Songs of the 'Heroic Age'

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 14th May 2018, 4.30pm - Nina Doering (University of Oxford)

'They don't know about the people who live here': Local non-participation in extractive resource management in Greenland

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 23rd April 2018, 4.30pm - Hanne Nielsen (University of Tasmania)

Brand Antarctica: Advertising and the South

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 19th February 2018, 4.30pm - Rick Knecht (University of Aberdeen)

Climate change, archaeology and tradition in an Alaskan Yup'ik Village

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 5th February 2018, 4.30pm - Thomas F. Thornton (University of Oxford)

Sacred Mountains as Flood Refuge Sites in Northwest North America

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 29th January 2018, 4.30pm - Bryan Lintott (Scott Polar Research Institute)

Scott’s and Shackleton’s Huts: Antarctic Heritage and International Relations

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 27th November 2017, 4.30pm - Peter Martin (University of Oxford)

Re/Fram/ing Geography: Fridtjof Nansen at the Royal Geographical Society c.1888-1914

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 6th November 2017, 4.30pm - Jean de Pomereu (Research Associate, Scott Polar Research Institute)

The meaning of Indlandsis: a cultural history of ice sheets

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 13th June 2017, 4.30pm - P.J. Capelotti (Professor of Anthropology, Penn State University)

Polar Opposites: American and Norwegian voices in the exploration of Franz Josef Land

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 9th February 2016, 2.30pm - Richard Powell (University of Oxford)

Writing the North? Geography and the disciplines of Circumpolar exceptionality

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Dr Richard Powell, Associate Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford, will be presenting a paper titled “Writing the North? Geography and the disciplines of Circumpolar exceptionality”.

# Tuesday 9th February 2016, 2.30pm - Roman Sidortsov (Scott Polar Research Institute)

Wrestling With Polar Bears: Risk, Power, Law, and Oil and Gas

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Roman Sitortsov, a doctoral candidate at SPRI, will be presenting on “Wrestling With Polar Bears: Risk, Power, Law, and Oil and Gas”

# Tuesday 19th January 2016, 2.30pm - Claire Warrior (National Maritime Museum) and Charlotte Connelly (Polar Museum, SPRI)

Double-bill: Polar Representation in Museums

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Claire Warrior, the Senior Curator of Exhibitions and a PhD Candidate at SPRI, will be discussing ‘Museum Representation and the new Polar Gallery at the National Maritime Museum”. This will be followed by questions and a discussion period.

Charlotte Connelly, the Curator for the Polar Museum and a PhD Candidate at both Cambridge and the Science Museum, will present on the difficulty of Polar representation beyond the Heroic Age. This will be followed by questions and a discussion period.

# Tuesday 17th November 2015, 2.00pm - Shane McCorristine (SPRI)

Polar Exploration and the 'Spectral Turn' in the Humanities

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 17th November 2015, 2.00pm - Bryan Lintott (SPRI)

The Myth of Timelessness in the Polar Regions

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 20th October 2015, 2.30pm - Dr. Michael Bravo, Geography and SPRI

Reflections on Analysis and Authorship in Polar Worlds

Venue: SPRI Seminar Room

Writing about the polar regions takes many forms. As politics and global commodity prices have dramatically increased, how has this impacted on polar writing and what are the implications for us as a community of scholarly practitioners? On the one hand, our goals and standards of academic success are defined by our institutions very clearly in terms of peer-reviewed articles and monographs. On the other hand, the circulation of informed opinion and analysis in the polar regions is taking place through a remarkably diverse range of media, forms, and genre: blogs, digests, videos, image banks, think tank reports, legal opinions environmental awareness-raising, as well as articles and books. In this discussion, I would like us to think about the way in which the use of these media and genres give rise to different kinds of authorial voices and ways of “narrating the polar regions”. This will give us an opportunity to reflect on how our own writing practices and aspirations can respond to this rapidly shifting field within which polar analysis circulates.

# Wednesday 22nd October 2014, 11.00am - David Turnbull (Melbourne University)

Indigenous Sovereignty beyond Nations

Venue: Hardy Building Room 101, Department of Geography, Downing Site

This will take the form of an early career reading group session led by Professor David Turnbull (Melbourne University). This session requires pre-registration with Dr. Shane McCorristine

# Monday 13th October 2014, 12.30pm - Niels Einarsson (Stefansson Institute, Iceland)

Fishing rights and financial capitalism in the Arctic: From common property to private ownership assets

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

The topic of fishing and access rights to marine resources is extremely important to coastal communities in the Arctic, as they are in the rest of the world for fishing societies from Ghana to Galicia. One of the major changes taking place, one could call it a social and historical transformation, is the privatisation of formerly common property resources, linking local livelihoods and community vibility to economic and financial processes of national and global markets and financial capitalism. Very little has been written about the social, indigenous and other Arctic residents‘ human rights, and economic and political implications of this recent shift in governance paradigm. This talk reports on ongoing anthropological and interdisciplinary research and deals with some of the aspects of this very rapid social change which is also coupled to processes of climate change and prospects of transarctic shipping and development of industrial megaprojects. The focus is on Iceland, Greenland and Norway but with data from other Arctic societies and fisheries.

# Thursday 1st May 2014, 4.30pm - Dr Kamrul Hossain (Arctic Centre, University of Lapland)

Arctic Maritime International Law

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Abstract not available

# Thursday 24th April 2014, 4.30pm - Marionne Cronin (University of Aberdeen)

The Topsy-Turvy Arctic: Navigating the Polar Airspace

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Abstract not available

# Thursday 6th March 2014, 4.30pm - Peter Schweitzer (Austrian Polar Research Institute)

The social life of Arctic transportation networks

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Abstract not available

# Thursday 20th February 2014, 1.15pm - Yaël Schlick (Queen's University at Kingston)

"Periodizing Modern Antarctica, or What is the Legacy of the Heroic Age?"

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

Abstract not available

# Wednesday 13th February 2013, 4.00pm - John MacDonald, Carolyn MacDonald, Wim Rasing

The Journals of William Hooper: Inuit ethnographer and evangelical

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Seminar Room

The Arctic humanities are a broad and developing field, encompassing subjects from the social impact of environmental change to the use of indigenous mapping techniques in western geographical knowledge. Taking a broad historical and circumpolar perspective, this seminar series explores the encounters and engagements between different actors, communities, and systems of knowledge in the Arctic. How do historical encounters and passages continue to shape issues of contemporary governance in the polar regions? This seminar series showcases the interdisciplinary strengths of SPRI while also engaging with the current research of visiting and invited scholars.