Janet Martin-Nielsen
janet.nielsen (at) alum.utoronto.ca
Janet Martin-Nielsen
New book:
A Few Acres of Ice: Environment, Sovereignty, and Grandeur in the French Antarctic (to appear with Cornell University Press in 2023)
Ph.D., 2010
History and Philosophy of Science
University of Toronto
M.A., 2006
History and Philosophy of Science
University of Toronto
B.A. Hons., 2004
Mathematics and Linguistics
McGill University
Research interests
I study environmental history in the polar regions, with a particular focus on the environment-sovereignty-politics nexus.
My latest book, A Few Acres of Ice: Environment, Sovereignty, and Grandeur in the French Antarctic will appear with Cornell University Press in September 2023.
My first book, Eismitte in the Scientific Imagination: Knowledge and Politics at the Center of Greenland, was published in 2013 by Palgrave Macmillan.
I do freelance language and style editing, copy editing, translation, and language instruction for academic clients across Europe. My recent clients include Aarhus University, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Arcadia, History of Meteorology, and researchers at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), KTH Stockholm, the University of Stavanger, and Uppsala University.
I have worked on the “Greening the Poles: Science, the Environment, and the Creation of the Modern Arctic and Antarctic” project (KTH Stockholm and the University of Stavanger) as well as the “Shaping Cultures of Prediction: Knowledge, Authority and the Construction of Climate Change” and “Exploring Greenland: Science and Technology in Cold War Settings” projects (Aarhus University). I have also published on, and maintain an ongoing interest in, the history of the social and human sciences.
Academic Work
Selected Publications
2023 (forthcoming)
A Few Acres of Ice: Environment, Sovereignty, and Grandeur in the French Antarctic (to appear with Cornell University Press in 2023)
Environment and Sovereignty in the Antarctic: The Terre Adélie Airstrip. Journal for the History of Environment and Society (to appear).
2022
Undecided Dreams: France in the Antarctic, 1840-2021. Polar Record, vol. 57, E32. doi:10.1017/S0032247421000140
2018
‘An Orgy of Hypothesizing’: The Construction of Glaciological Knowledge in Cold War America. In Ice and Snow in the Cold War: Histories of Extreme Climatic Environments. ed. Julia Herzberg; Christian Kehrt; Franziska Toma. Berghahn Books, 2018.
2017
A New Climate: Hubert H. Lamb and Boundary Work at the UK Meteorological Office. In Cultures of Prediction in Atmospheric and Climate Science: Epistemic and Cultural Shifts in Computer-based Modelling and Simulation. ed. Matthias Heymann; Gabriele Gramelsberger; Martin Mahony. Taylor & Francis, 2017. p. 85–99.
2016
Security and the Nation: Glaciology in Early Cold War Greenland. In Matthias Heymann, Ronald E. Doel and Kristine C. Harper (eds.), Exploring Greenland: Science and Technology in Cold War Settings (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
2015
Re-conceptualizing the North: A Historiographic Discussion. Journal of Northern Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2015, p. 51–68.
Review of James Turner’s ‘Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities’ Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 51, No. 3, 2015, p. 340–341.
Ways of Knowing Climate: Hubert H. Lamb and Climate Research in the UK. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Vol. 6, No. 5, 2015, p. 465–477.
2014
City Under the Ice: The Closed World of Camp Century in Cold War Culture (with Kristian Hvidtfelt Nielsen and Henry Nielsen). Science as Culture, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2014, p. 443–464.
2013
Eismitte in the Scientific Imagination: Knowledge and Power at the Center of Greenland. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Introduction: Perspectives on Cold War Science in Small European States (with Matthias Heymann). Centaurus, Vol. 55, No. 3, 2013, p. 221–242.
‘The Deepest and Most Rewarding Hole Ever Drilled’: Ice Cores and the Cold War in Greenland. Annals of Science, Vol. 70, No. 1, 2013, p. 47–70. (Named as one of the ten most-downloaded History of Science Articles published in Taylor and Francis Journals in 2013.)
2012
‘The Other Cold War’: The United States and Greenland’s Ice Sheet Environment, 1948–1966. Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 38, No. 1, 01.2012, p. 69–80.
‘It Was All Connected’: Computers and Linguistics in Early Cold War America. In: Cold War Social Science: Knowledge Production, Liberal Democracy and Human Nature. ed. Mark Solovey & Hamilton Cravens. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. p. 63–78.
2011
A Forgotten Social Science? Creating a Place for Linguistics in the Historical Dialogue.”Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 47, No. 2, 2011, p. 147–172.
2010
Redefining What Matters : Syntactic Explanation in American Linguistics, 1955–1970. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 55, No. 3, 2010, p. 331–358.
‘This War for Men’s Minds’: The Birth of a Human Science in Cold War America. History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2010, p. 131–155.
Press
“Science Waged Cold War Battle Over Greenland”, Dan Vergano, USA Today, 23 January 2012.
Selected Talks
2022
Environment and Sovereignty in the French Antarctic, Tensions of Europe (Aarhus Universitet) (Invited)
2015
Shaping Cultures of Prediction: Knowledge, Authority, and the Construction of Climate Change, UK Climatology 1960–1985 and the Emergence of Climate Modeling (King’s College, London) (Invited)
Charting and Controlling the Arctic: The Political Uses of Environmental Knowledge, European Society for Environmental History Biennial Conference (Paris)
Intellectual Sovereignty and Environmental Authority: The Case of Greenland, History of Science Society Annual Meeting (San Francisco)
Politicizing Climate: Rhetoric, Aims and Actions in the UK, 1970s: Turn of an Era in the History of Science Workshop (Aarhus) (Invited)
2014
Climate, Computers and Controversy: Boundary Work at the UK Meteorological Office, European Society for the History of Science Annual Meeting (Lisbon)
Climate, Culture and Authority at the UK Meteorological Office, 1965 to 1971, Climate and Culture (Rachel Carson Center, Munich) (Invited)
Communicating Climate in Historical Context, Changing Climate Change Communication: A Conference on the Interactions Between Culture, Society and Language in the Context of Global Warming (Amsterdam) (Invited)
Shaping Cultures of Prediction: Some Observations from the UK Scene, Rachel Carson Center Lunchtime Colloquium (Munich) (Invited)
2013
Layers of Secrecy: A Big State, a Small State and the Cold War. Northern Nations, Northern Natures (Stockholm) (Invited)
Performing Sovereignty: The Control of Scientific Knowledge in Cold War Greenland. Cold War Science: Lorentz Center - International Center for Workshops in the Sciences (Leiden)
2012
Between Man and Ice: Technology and Glaciological Exploration in Greenland, 1929–1966. SHOT (Society for the History of Technology) Annual Meeting (Copenhagen)
2011
Rethinking the Postwar Social Science Space. Aarhus University History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium (Aarhus) (Invited)
At War With Nature: Scientific Knowledge, Military Strategy and Arctic Geography. Geographies and the History of Science: 4th Norwegian Conference of History of Science (Oslo)
2010
Linguistics, Computers and Professional Actors in the Historical Dialogue. Babel: Visual and Linguistic Computer Metaphors in Computing Conference (Amsterdam) (Invited)
Whither Linguistics? 7th History of Economics as History of Science Spring Workshop (Paris) (Invited)
2009
The Most Advanced of All Social Sciences? Linguistics in Cold War America. XXIII International Congress of History of Science and Technology (Budapest)
‘It Was All Connected’: Computers and Linguistics in Postwar America. University of Amsterdam Program in the History of Computing Colloquium (Amsterdam) (Invited)
Us Against the World: Science Publishing, Underground Literature and American Linguistics, 1957–1970. British Society for the History of Science Conference (Leicester)
2008
Re-considering the Chomskyan Revolution: A History of American Linguistic Pedagogy, 1957–1968. MEPHISTOS Conference (Austin)
The Mathematization of American Linguistics, 1952–1968. Three Societies: 6th Joint Meeting of the BSHS, CSHPS and HSS (Oxford)
The Mathematization of Natural Language Syntax, 1957–1968. Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics Conference (Vancouver)
Selected Service
2013
Journal Special Issue Co-Editor (with Matthias Heymann), ‘Science and Politics at War: New Relations in the Postwar Era’ (Centaurus, Vol. 55)
2011
Event organizer: Science and Politics at War: New Relations in the Postwar Era (Conference, Aarhus)
Event organizer: The Cold War in Northern Environments: Geographies of Knowledge, Militarism, National Identity and Scientific Practices (Workshop, Aarhus)