Dr Anna Gielas

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual European Fellow

I investigate how the Arctic has been conceptualised in scientific periodicals, with a particular attention to the influence of editorial contexts (e.g., editorial interests and guidelines) on the Arctic as an object of science.

Biography

Qualifications

I hold a PhD in the History of Science from the University of St Andrews and a Master's in Political Science as well as a Master's in (Anglo-American) Literary Studies from the RWTH Aachen.

Awards

Selected awards:

• 2020: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (Evaluation Score: 98%)
• 2017: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) - Postgraduate Fellowship
• 2017: Curran Fellowship
• 2016: Theodora Bosanquet Bursary (British Federation Of Women Graduates)
• 2016: German Historical Institute in London - Postgraduate Fellowship
• 2015: Oxford DNB Research Bursary
• 2015-2018: Joint PhD Grant (Royal Institution of Great Britain and University of St Andrews)

Research

My post-doctoral project focuses on the communication infrastructure of Arctic research. More concretely, I approach today's scientific journals on the Arctic through the study of natural philosophical and scientific periodicals of the long nineteenth century (1789-1914). As human-made artefacts, science journals have mirrored political, economic and socio-cultural forces since their very beginnings—and I investigate how exactly these forces have shaped editorial contents and contexts.

More concretely, I study both the editorial contexts and contents of articles related to the Arctic that appeared in scientific journals within the geographical area that today is home to, e.g., Austria, United Kingdom, Poland and the United States.

Understanding how editorial processes shaped earlier journal-based discourses on the Arctic allows me to compare them to their counterparts of today, consider their strengths and weaknesses and put forward editorial action to bolster current scientific communication on the north polar regions. I aim to do so through close cooperation with editorial offices that publish journals on north polar research.

Publications

Please see my ORCID Profile 0000-0002-0339-6536

Journal articles

• Gielas, A., forthcoming. Arctic Flower: The Botanical Research of Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen (1873-1943), Photography and Culture.
• Gielas, A., The polar sciences journal: the past and future of a crucial research instrument, Polar Research, https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v41.8883.
• Gielas, A., 2022. John Møller's 'Photographic Memory' – Professional Photography of Greenlandic Inuit and Danish Administrators at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Photography and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1080/17514517.2021.2004706
• Gielas, A., 2021. Gottfried August Gründler's cover of 'Der Naturforscher' (1773), Print Quarterly.
• Gielas, A., 2021. Review of Hester Blum, The News at the Ends of the Earth: The Print Culture of Polar Exploration, Journal of European Periodical Studies, doi.org/10.21825/jeps.v6i1.20641
• Gielas, A., 2021. Burning the Books. A History of Knowledge Under Attack (Book Review). Endeavour, doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100746.
• Fyfe, A. and Gielas, A., 2020. Introduction: Editorship and the editing of scientific journals, 1750–1950. Centaurus, v. 62, p.5-20. doi:10.1111/1600-0498.12290.
• Gielas, A., 2020. Turning tradition into an instrument of research: The editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815). Centaurus, v. 62, p.38-53. doi:10.1111/1600-0498.12283.
• Gielas, A., 2019. The scientific journal. Authorship and the politics of knowledge in the nineteenth century (Book Review). Annals of Science, v. 76, p. 236-238. doi:10.1080/00033790.2018.1564068.
• Gielas, A., 2016. Making "Nature". The History of a Scientific Journal (Book Review). Annals of Science, v. 73, p. 338-340. doi:10.1080/00033790.2016.1171394.
• Gielas, A., 2010. Bounding Power. Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village (Book Review). POLITISCHE VIERTELJAHRESSCHRIFT, v. 51, p. 187-188.
• Gielas, A., 2008. Pickel, Andreas: The Problem of Order in the Global Age. Systems and Mechanisms (Book Review). Politische Vierteljahresschrift, doi:10.1007/s11615-008-0131-0.

External

Further affiliations

• Centre for Global Knowledge Studies (gloknos): Associate Member