Dissertation Research: Arctic Survival, 1850-1884: Adaptation and Cross-Cultural Interaction

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research project, PI Susan Schrepfer and CoPI Karen Routledge, Rutgers University New Brunswick, is to examine cultural constructs of hostile environments and survival and how these concepts shaped national identities and governmental policies in the 19th century. Using qualitative and quantitative ethnohistoric methodology, the researcher, Routledge, will compare four distinct historical events across Canada: the Inuit migration from Baffin Island to Greenland; American whaling stations in Cumberland Sound; an ice floe on which Inuit and non-Inuit were marooned for six months, and an American expedition to Ellsmere Island, in order to provide new insights in to the nature of exploration from both indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives.