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Project Code [21/PATH-A/9519]
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Project title
Exploring the Arctic Archive: Recovering Documentary Visual and Literary Sources of the Circumpolar North in the Long Nineteenth Century
Primary Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Co-Funding Organisation(s)
n/a
Lead Organisation
University of Galway (NUIG)
Project Abstract
This interdisciplinary project explores the documentary art and literature of the western Arctic environment (in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Nordic countries) during the nineteenth century and recovers scattered materials that can be difficult for researchers to locate. These include drawings, sketches, paintings, and their adjacent texts that show the region as represented by Indigenous peoples, settlers, and travellers to the circumpolar North. This is not the perpetually icy and terrible space that appears repeatedly during the nineteenth century in public contexts, but a biodiverse, inhabited, and seasonal place. The work aims to rewrite the history of the visual representation of the Arctic and to upend popular stereotypes. The outputs will include an extensive and comprehensive database aimed at researchers in the humanities and natural sciences, a scholarly book from Cambridge University Press that connects with the wider public, and an online exhibition. The image of the Arctic as a wasteland of ice and snow has been remarkably persistent and continues to impact people with influential roles in education, media, and politics. The research is timely as the Arctic is increasingly on geopolitical agendas due to global warming, yet is often misunderstood by outsiders.
Grant Approved
�425,000.00
Research Theme
Climate Solutions, Transition Management and Opportunities
Initial Projected Completion Date
28/02/2026