With the current focus on climate change, the Antarctic has emerged as a region of intense interest for non-scientists as well as scientists. For a decade now the University of Tasmania has been building its capacity in non-science areas of Antarctic Studies, including cultural history, textual and artistic representation, tourism, geography and geopolitics, environmental management, policy, governance and law.
Antarctic Engagements is a network of researchers across the University working to understand the social, cultural and political dimension of human engagement with the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic region, past, present and future. Strategically located at a “polar gateway,” our group aims to strengthen and broaden the University's international reputation for excellence in Antarctic research. By diversifying the University’s knowledge base in this area, the group helps to foster the holistic interdisciplinary approach that is increasingly recognised as necessary to deal with the problems currently facing humanity.
Banner Image Credit: Meredith Nash
Contact | Group Leaders
Alignment with CALE Research
Business and Economics - Tourism.
Political Science, IMAS. Marcus Haward is a political scientist specialising in oceans and Antarctic governance and marine resources management at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania. He has held visiting or adjunct appointments at the Australian Maritime College, Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian National University and Dalhousie University, Canada. He is currently working on oceans and Antarctic governance, knowledge systems in coastal management, and Australia’s regional fisheries interests.
Law (Polar Governance). Julia Jabour is the leader of the Ocean & Antarctic Governance Research Program at IMAS. She has been researching, writing and lecturing on polar governance for more than 20 years. Most of her teaching and research is trans-disciplinary involving international law, international relations, and environmental social sciences. She has strong links to the Arctic law community through hosting the 7th Polar Law Symposium in Hobart in 2014 and this year is the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research’s Visiting Scholar to Iran.
Dr Annaliese Jacobs
Humanities.
Geography.
English. Elizabeth Leane holds an ARC Future Fellowship split between the School of Humanities and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. With degrees in both science and literature, she is interested in building bridges between disciplines, and particularly in bringing the insights of the humanities to the study of the Antarctic.
Dr Ben Maddison
Oceans & Cryosphere, IMAS.
Sociology. Meredith Nash is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Tasmania. Her research interests focus on gender and social change. She is currently undertaking a longitudinal project exploring the role of Antarctica in shaping the leadership capacities of a global group of women in STEMM fields.
Psychology. Kimberley Norris is a Clinical Psychologist and researcher with an interest in Antarctic Psychology, in terms of health and performance of people living and working in Antarctica, as well as their families. Kimberley is looking to develop new and innovative ways to provide psychological support for individuals in remote, rural, maritime and extreme environments at an individual, organisational, and familial level. Kimberley is also a member of the SCAR-COMNAP Joint Expert Group on Human Biology and Medicine.
Music. Carolyn Philpott is the Research Coordinator and a Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music, as well as an Adjunct Researcher at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. Her research focuses on intersections between music, place and the environment – including music composed in response to Antarctica – and she has published articles in leading journals within the fields of musicology and polar studies, including Musicology Australia, Organised Sound, Popular Music, The Polar Journal and Polar Record.
12 November 2018
As part of the Humanities Seminar Series, two presentatations were delivered by visiting academics. The first, by Dr Alessandro Antonello, University of Melbourne, was titled "The diplomacy and geopolitics of ‘environmental impact’ in Antarctica, 1970s-1980s". The second, by Ben Goossen, Harvard University, was titled "Making Antarctica Environmental in the Global Cold War, 1950s-1960s".
August 2018
Watch a selection of the presentations online now.
As part of the 2018 Antarctic Festival the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) hosted a series of public talks by UTAS researchers engaging with Antarctic and Oceanic themes from the Arts and Humanities showcasing the breadth and depth of UTAS Antarctic and Oceanic-related research.
June 2018
A number of researchers involved in the Antarctic Engagements research group, including Meredith Nash, Kimberly Norris, Elizabeth Leane and Carolyn Philpott, gave presentations at the POLAR2018 conference in Davos, Switzerland, in June
2018. Here, Carolyn and Elizabeth speak about a project they are developing that looks at the impact of artists’ residencies in Antarctica.
Image: Carolyn and Elle presentation.
5 July - 7 July 2017
Antarctic Humanities and Social Sciences Expert Group (HASSEG) Conference 2017
The conference aims were to bring together humanities, creative arts and social sciences researchers interested in the Antarctic, fostering a community
of scholars who can act in concert with natural scientists to address the issues that face the Antarctic region.
4 July - 28 July 2017
Internationally renowned photographic artist Anne Noble will be exhibiting her work as part of the HASSEG Depths and Surfaces: Understanding the Antarctic region through the Humanities and Social Sciences annual conference.
Exhibition opening 4 July 4:30pm
6 June 2017 12:00pm - 1.00pm
Assoc Prof Elizabeth Leane presented a Public Talk at The Maritime Museum of Tasmania focussing on twenty novels published in English over the last 250 years, chosen for their influence, their historical significance or simply their quirkiness.
15 May 2017 1:00pm - 2.00pm
Seminar presented by: Institute for the Study of Social Change and the School of Social Sciences with Dr Meredith Nash
In this presentation, Dr Nash discussed her findings from a mixed-methods study on the leadership experiences
of 25 women in STEMM fields who were all participants in a three-week transformational leadership program in Antarctica in 2016.
Dr Carolyn Philpott's The Conversation article discusses how Antarctica has inspired Australian composers.
There are currently no available Research Degree Projects currently available with the Antarctic Engagements Research Group. However, this will change in the future so please continue to visit this section.
For a full list of current University projects, see the Research Division – Available Research Degree Projects.
A full range of publications relevant to Antarctic Engagements can be found on our researcher's full profiles linked above. These include journal articles, books, chapters in books, reviews, conference publications, thesis, and other public output. Some notable books are listed below.
