Doctoral Dissertation Research: Role of Place in the Development

这项科学与社会学位论文改进补助金通过提供资金前往阿拉斯加和美国其他地方的档案馆，支持学位论文学生完成她的论文。这篇论文探讨了自然科学在探索全球现象时对地点的依赖方式，以及地点又是如何不可避免地塑造了处于审查之下的科学。正在研究的案例是1878年至1959年期间在阿拉斯加冰川湾进行的科学研究对美国生态学和美国冰川学的发展。本文借鉴了科学史、环境史和地理学的方法论，论证了地点在塑造科学实践和理论方面发挥了重要作用，地点由科学家和其他人所建造的物理位置和空间所定义。反过来，科学实践也极大地塑造了这个地方，以及美国公众如何了解和了解冰川湾。为了支持这些论点，本论文将使用从阿拉斯加到巴尔的摩的美国各地档案馆的大量原始材料，包括尚未被访问以进行此类分析的通信和实地笔记本。这篇论文还将在很大程度上依赖于对科学家收集的科学数据的分析，包括地图、照片和物种组成列表，其中大部分位于科罗拉多州博尔德市的世界冰川数据中心(WDC)，与美国地质调查局(USGS)的布鲁斯·莫尔尼亚(Bruce Molnia)合作。这篇论文的学术价值在于它对越来越多的关于科学地位的文献做出了贡献，特别是对重要科学史家最近对田野研究的分析。本文将深化和拓展对田野研究中场所的认识。在这个宽泛的框架内，通过对地点的关注，本文还提出了几个挑战和加强美国生态、冰川学和气候变化的现有史学的论点。此外，本文还探讨了这一时期跨学科研究的性质，并对20世纪上半叶关于学科建设和专业化程度提高的一些历史论点提出了质疑。这篇论文的更广泛的影响包括促进跨学科工作，改善对档案资料的获取，以及加强对科学保护和全球气候变化理论的历史理解。首先，这个项目将与美国地质调查局的一个团队一起在阿拉斯加进行为期几周的实地研究。这项研究将为当前冰川湾的研究提供一个历史的视角，而合作野外勘察将增强本论文的科学性。其次，该项目将与两个国家科学研究机构密切合作，即美国国家海洋和大气管理局(NOAA)和美国地质勘探局。为了利用保存在NOAA资助的世界数据中心的材料，本论文进行的研究将涉及帮助世界数据中心的档案员更有效地组织和提供历史科学期刊和数据集。最后，在探索对地点的研究、科学家对保护这样一个野生研究遗址的积极行动以及得出关于全球气候变化的理论的过程中，本文将探索荒野保护对科学的历史价值以及对气候变化的历史理解。由于土地保护和气候变化理论在美国社会都已经成为有争议的问题，本文将把较少争议时代的历史理解带到当前的争论中，并有助于澄清当前关于荒野土地和气候变化理论的争论。这项拟议研究的直接目标是写一篇论文，并制定出一本书的更大计划，或许还有一两篇相关的文章。

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant supports a dissertation student in completing her dissertation by providing funds to travel to archives in Alaska and other U.S. locations. The dissertation explores the ways in which natural science depended on place even as it probed for global phenomena and how, in turn, place inevitably shaped the science under scrutiny. The case under study is the development of American ecology and American glaciology through scientific studies done in Glacier Bay, Alaska, between 1878 and 1959. Drawing on the methodologies of the history of science, environmental history, and geography, this dissertation demonstrates that place, defined by both the physical location and the spaces constructed by scientists and others, played an important role in shaping scientific practice and theory. In turn, scientific practice also greatly shaped the place and how the American public came to know and understand Glacier Bay. To support these arguments, this dissertation will employ a large collection of primary materials from archives located across the United States,from Alaska to Baltimore,including correspondence and field notebooks that have not yet been accessed for such analysis. This dissertation will also rely heavily on analysis of scientific data gathered by the scientists, including maps, photographs, and species compositions lists, much of which is located at the World Data Center for Glaciolo gy (WDC) in Boulder, Colorado, and with Bruce Molnia of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The intellectual merit of this dissertation lies in its contributions to a growing body of literature on the placedness of science, especially more recent analyses of field research by important historians of science. This dissertation will deepen and expand the understanding of place in field research. Within this broad framework and through its focus on place, this dissertation also makes several arguments that challenge and enhance the standing historiography on American ecology and on glaciology and climate change. In addition, this dissertation explores the nature of interdisciplinary studies during this time period and challenges some of the historical arguments made about discipline building and increased specialization in the first half of the twentieth century. The broader impacts of this dissertation include promoting interdisciplinary work,improving access to archival sources, and enhancing the historical understanding of scientific conservation and theories of global climate change. First, this project will involve several weeks of field research in Alaska with a team from the USGS. This research will contribute a historical perspective to current studies conducted in Glacier Bay while the cooperative field reconnaissance will enhance the scientific content of the proposed dissertation. Second, this project will involve working intimately with two national scientific research organizations, namely the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the USGS. In making use of materials kept at the NOAA-funded WDC, the research undertaken for this dissertation will involve helping the archivist at the WDC to more effectively organize and make available historical scientific journals and data sets. Finally, in exploring the study of place, activism by scientists to preserve such a wild study site, and the theories drawn about global climate change, this dissertation will explore the historical value of wilderness preservation for science and also the historical understanding of climate change. As both land preservation and climate change theories have become contentious issues in American society, this dissertation will bring a historical understanding from less contentious times to bear on current arguments and help to clarify current debates about wilderness lands and climate change theories. The immediate goal of the proposed research is a dissertation, with a larger plan for a book and perhaps one or tworelated articles.