COLL A19, 13-14/06/2025 : “Polar X Workshop and Symposium: Women’s Narratives of Polar Encounters, Extractivism and Arctic Exploration from the 19th Century to the Present”

POLAR X WORKSHOP & SYMPOSIUM: WOMEN’S NARRATIVES OF POLAR ENCOUNTERS, EXTRACTIVISM AND EXPLORATION FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT

Friday 13 June & Saturday 14 June 2025 (U Paris Cité)

The literature of polar exploration is often constrained, whether explicitly or not, by ideas of heroism, nationalism, whiteness and masculinity. The POLAR X PROJECT proposes to interrogate these notions and collaboratively develop a new framework for thinking about polar narratives in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Led by Michèle Mendelssohn (Oxford University) & Cécile Roudeau (Université Paris Cité), the aim of the POLAR X PROJECT is to generate an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to investigate the vexed relationship between the extraction of scientific, natural and ethnographically specific resources from the 19th century to the present day.

Over 2 days in Paris and online, the POLAR X WORKSHOP & SYMPOSIUM will provide an opportunity for established and emerging scholars to enter into conversation with one another over key texts, respond to works in progress, and reflect on what shifts in our conception of polar encounters might mean for our research and pedagogy.

For the program please click here.