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SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Accessing Antarctica: an analysis of the institutional 
 structures that facilitate Antarctic fieldwork - Bronte Evans-Rayward (SPR
 I\, University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20251118T163000Z
DTEND:20251118T180000Z
UID:TALK237913@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:48016
DESCRIPTION:My PhD Research Project proposal\, made in 2021\, required Ant
 arctic fieldwork that did not occur. The experience of attempting to organ
 ise this fieldwork inadvertently became an ethnographic investigation of A
 ntarctic institutional fieldwork structures. This work highlighted complic
 ated intersections between ‘boundary work’ and ‘studying up’ in ea
 rly career polar humanities research. In this presentation\, I use this st
 ory to explore how the polar context complicates the binary of ‘going th
 ere’ and power dynamics of fieldwork often highlighted in geographical d
 iscussions. This is connected in large part to the unusual political const
 ruction of Antarctica as a ‘continent for science’ and the associated 
 influences on researcher access. I analyse my own experience and argue tha
 t it is imperative that\, and potentially would be very positive if\, huma
 nities and social science fieldwork were integrated into the logistical an
 d funding structures of institutions facilitating polar field research. Th
 ese arguments raise important themes including the necessity of examining 
 the influence of imaginaries of Antarctic places on the norms of place-bas
 ed research in polar locales\, it returns geographers to the question of t
 he complex role of fieldwork in definitions of the geographical discipline
 \, and reinforces the importance of these considerations in a context of i
 ncreasing environmental threat and uncertainty. \n
LOCATION:Scott Polar Research Institute\, Lecture Theatre
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