I watched The Terror in April 2020 and the rest was history.
Specific areas of interest:
- The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, especially the Terra Nova, Nimrod & Belgica expeditions
- Scrapbooks, ephemera, and polar publications created during expeditions (The South Polar Times, the Aurora Australis)
- Polar audiences, enthusiasts & fangirls throughout history
- The use/necessity of humor, theatre, and performance as tool for social cohesion in expeditions
- Frederick Cook & his legacy
- The Franklin Expedition
- Sir Clements Markham, the material consequences of his polar obsession, & his role as connective tissue between the Victorians and the Heroic Age
- Popular reception of polar narratives in in the press and fictional media, literary interpretations of polar exploration
- Biographical details of officers & men, incl. family history and society connections
Elsewhere:
- Lead organizer of Terror Camp (2021-present)
- Polar talks at Explorer’s Club, Vanderbilt University, New Caanan Library (2025) Shackleton Autumn School Athy, Royal Geographical Society (2024) History of Science Society conference (2022)
- Polar articles and essays in MIT Technology Review, New York Times, Atlas Obscura, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic, The Forward, Long Now
- Clements Markham paper in Polar Record, 2024
- Volunteer at the Frederick Cook Society in Hurleyville, NY (2022-2023)
- Received a NYU Digital Humanities Fellowship in 2022 to research the Victorian polar network at the British Library
Early tidbits:
- Assisted with Illuminator’s guide to Greenwich’s Polar Worlds
- Contributed to Finger-Post’s research on the missing Erebus clerk
- Helped with research on Crozier’s birth date for Haw Lantern