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Article

Progress in Human Geography


1–24
Glaciers, gender, and science: ª The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0309132515623368
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for global environmental change
research

Mark Carey, M Jackson, Alessandro Antonello and Jaclyn Rushing


University of Oregon, USA

Abstract
Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change. However, the relationships among
gender, science, and glaciers – particularly related to epistemological questions about the production of
glaciological knowledge – remain understudied. This paper thus proposes a feminist glaciology framework
with four key components: 1) knowledge producers; (2) gendered science and knowledge; (3) systems of
scientific domination; and (4) alternative representations of glaciers. Merging feminist postcolonial science
studies and feminist political ecology, the feminist glaciology framework generates robust analysis of gender,
power, and epistemologies in dynamic social-ecological systems, thereby leading to more just and equitable
science and human-ice interactions.

Keywords
feminist glaciology, feminist political ecology, feminist postcolonial science studies, folk glaciology, glacier
impacts, glaciers and society

I Introduction such as Cruikshank (2005), who asks if glaciers


listen, Orlove et al. (2008b), who analyze the cul-
Glaciers are icons of global climate change,
tural framing of glaciers, Carey (2007), who sees
with common representations stripping them
an endangered species narrative applied to gla-
of social and cultural contexts to portray ice
ciers, Jackson (2015), who exposes how glaciers
as simplified climate change yardsticks and
are depicted as ruins, and Sörlin (2015), who
thermometers. In geophysicist Henry Pollack’s
refers to the present as a cryo-historical moment
articulation, ‘Ice asks no questions, presents
because ‘ice has become historical, i.e. that ice
no arguments, reads no newspapers, listens to
is an element of change and thus something that
no debates. It is not burdened by ideology and
can be considered as part of society and of societal
carries no political baggage as it crosses the
concern’ (Sörlin, 2015: 327).
threshold from solid to liquid. It just melts’
(Pollack, 2009: 114). This perspective appears
consistently in public discourse, from media to
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Corresponding author:
Mark Carey, Robert D. Clark Honors College, University
(IPCC). But the ‘ice is just ice’ conceptualization of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
contrasts sharply with conclusions by researchers Email: carey@uoregon.edu

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2 Progress in Human Geography

Nüsser and Baghel (2014) also reject the ‘ice 2005). Feminist theories and critical epistemol-
is just ice’ assertion. Glaciers, they argue, ‘have ogies – especially feminist political ecology and
increasingly become contested and contro- feminist postcolonial science studies – open up
versial objects of knowledge, susceptible to new perspectives and analyses of the history of
cultural framings as both dangerous and endan- glaciological knowledge. Researchers in femin-
gered landscapes’ (Nüsser and Baghel, 2014: ist political ecology and feminist geography
138). Glaciers, after all, affect people world- (e.g. Sultana, 2014; Mollett and Faria, 2013;
wide by influencing sea level, providing water Elmhirst, 2011; Coddington, 2015) have also
for drinking and agriculture, generating hydro- called for studies to move ‘beyond gender’, to
electric energy from glacier runoff, triggering include analyses of power, justice, and knowl-
natural disasters, yielding rich climate data from edge production as well as ‘to unsettle and chal-
ice cores, shaping religious beliefs and cultural lenge dominant assumptions’ that are often
values, constituting identities, inspiring art and embedded in Eurocentric knowledges (Harris,
literature, and driving tourist economies that 2015: xx). Given the prominent place of glaciers
affect local populations and travelers alike both within the social imaginary of climate
(e.g. Carey, 2010; Cruikshank, 2005; Gosnell, change and in global environmental change
2005; Hewitt, 2014c; Orlove et al., 2008a). research, a feminist approach has important
Despite their perceived remoteness, glaciers are present-day relevance for understanding the
central sites – often contested and multifaceted dynamic relationship between people and ice –
– experiencing the effects of global change, what Nüsser and Baghel (2015) refer to as the
where science, policy, knowledge, and society cryoscape.
interact in dynamic social-ecological systems. Through a review and synthesis of a
Today, there is a need for a much more profound multi-disciplinary and wide-ranging literature
analysis of societies living in and engaging with on human-ice relations, this paper proposes a
mountains and cold regions (Halvorson, 2002; feminist glaciology framework to analyze
Byers and Sainju, 1994; Bloom et al., 2008), human-glacier dynamics, glacier narratives and
including the social, economic, political, cul- discourse, and claims to credibility and author-
tural, epistemological, and religious aspects of ity of glaciological knowledge through the lens
glaciers (see e.g. Allison, 2015; Gagné et al., of feminist studies. As a point of departure, we
2014). use ‘glaciology’ in an encompassing sense that
A critical but overlooked aspect of the human exceeds the immediate scientific meanings of
dimensions of glaciers and global change the label, much as feminist critiques of geogra-
research is the relationship between gender and phy, for example, have expanded what it is that
glaciers. While there has been relatively little ‘geography’ might mean vis-à-vis geographic
research on gender and global environmental knowledge (Domosh, 1991; Rose, 1993). As
change in general (Moosa and Tuana, 2014; such, feminist glaciology has four aspects:
Arora-Jonsson, 2011), there is even less from (1) knowledge producers, to decipher how gen-
a feminist perspective that focuses on gender der affects the individuals producing glacier-
(understood here not as a male/female binary, related knowledges; (2) gendered science and
but as a range of personal and social possibili- knowledge, to address how glacier science, per-
ties) and also on power, justice, inequality, and ceptions, and claims to credibility are gendered;
knowledge production in the context of ice, (3) systems of scientific domination, to analyze
glacier change, and glaciology (exceptions are how power, domination, colonialism, and con-
Bloom et al., 2008; Williams and Golovnev, trol – undergirded by and coincident with mas-
2015; Hevly, 1996; Hulbe et al., 2010; Cruikshank, culinist ideologies – have shaped glacier-related

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Carey et al. 3

sciences and knowledges over time; and (4) postcolonial science studies and feminist politi-
alternative representations, to illustrate diverse cal ecology provide the intellectual foundation
methods and ways – beyond the natural sciences for feminist glaciology.
and including what we refer to as ‘folk glaciol- Most existing glaciological research – and
ogies’ – to portray glaciers and integrate hence discourse and discussions about cryo-
counter-narratives into broader conceptions of spheric change – stems from information
the cryosphere. These four components of fem- produced by men, about men, with manly char-
inist glaciology not only help to critically acteristics, and within masculinist discourses.
uncover the under-examined history of glacio- These characteristics apply to scientific disci-
logical knowledge and glacier-related sciences plines beyond glaciology; there is an explicit
prominent in today’s climate change discus- need to uncover the role of women in the history
sions. The framework also has important of science and technology, while also exposing
implications for understanding vulnerability, processes for excluding women from science
adaptation, and resilience – all central themes and technology (Phillips and Phillips, 2010;
in global environmental change research and Domosh, 1991; Rose, 1993). Harding (2009)
decision-making that have lacked such robust explains that the absence of women in science
analysis of epistemologies and knowledge pro- critically shapes ‘the selection of scientific
duction (Conway et al., 2014; Castree et al., problems, hypotheses to be tested, what consti-
2014). tuted relevant data to be collected, how it was
collected and interpreted, the dissemination and
consequences of the results of research, and who
II Why feminist glaciology? was credited with the scientific and technologi-
Feminist glaciology asks how knowledge cal work’ (Harding, 2009: 408). Scientific stud-
related to glaciers is produced, circulated, and ies themselves can also be gendered, especially
gains credibility and authority across time and when credibility is attributed to research pro-
space. It simultaneously brings to the forefront duced through typically masculinist activities
glacier knowledge that has been marginalized or manly characteristics, such as heroism,
or deemed ‘outside’ of traditional glaciology. risk, conquests, strength, self-sufficiency, and
It asks how glaciers came to be meaningful and exploration (Terrall, 1998). The tendency to
significant (through what ontological and epis- exclude women and emphasize masculinity
temological process), as well as trying to desta- thus has far-reaching effects on science and
bilize underlying assumptions about ice and knowledge, including glaciology and glacier-
environment through the dismantling of a host related knowledges.
of boundaries and binaries. The feminist lens Feminist glaciology is rooted in, and com-
is crucial given the historical marginalization bines, both feminist science studies and postco-
of women, the importance of gender in glacier- lonial science studies to meaningfully shift
related knowledges, and the ways in which sys- present-day glacier and ice sciences. While
tems of colonialism, imperialism, and patriarchy feminist science studies focuses explicitly on
co-constituted gendered science. Additionally, gender and the place (or absence) of women in
the feminist perspective seeks to uncover and science, it can neglect specific analyses of the
embrace marginalized knowledges and alterna- social relations of colonialism and imperialism,
tive narratives, which are increasingly needed emphasizing instead Western women without
for effective global environmental change sustained attention to indigenous, non-Western,
research, including glaciology (Castree et al., and local knowledge systems that are the center-
2014; Hulme, 2011). A combination of feminist piece of postcolonial science studies (Harding,

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4 Progress in Human Geography

2009; Phillips and Phillips, 2010; Schnabel, postcolonial science studies, analyzing not only
2014). The postcolonial perspective is crucial gender dynamics and situated knowledges, but
for understanding glaciological knowledges also alternative knowledges and folk glaciolo-
because the science of glaciology has histori- gies that are generally marginalized through
cally participated in the imperialist, colonial, colonialism, imperialism, inequality, unequal
and capitalist projects associated with polar power relations, patriarchy, and the domination
exploration, mountain colonization, resource of Western science (Harding, 2009).
extraction, and Cold War and other geopolitical An additional theoretical foundation for fem-
endeavors. inist glaciology is feminist political ecology,
More recently, glaciology has also been cen- which has generally emphasized unequal vul-
tral to earth systems science that often relies on nerability and disproportionate global change
remote sensing from satellite imagery to suggest impacts, but which also contributes significant
broader claims of objectivity but is actually akin research on knowledge production, ontologies,
to the ‘god trick of seeing everything from and epistemologies. With hundreds of millions
nowhere’ (Haraway, 1988: 581; also see Sha- of people utilizing glaciers for everything from
pin, 1998). Questions about epistemology in cli- drinking water and hydroelectricity to recrea-
mate science, ice coring, and glaciology are tion and spiritual sites, the disproportionate vul-
only beginning to be asked, especially focusing nerabilities and disparate adaptive capacities
on Cold War polar glaciology (Martin-Nielsen, in these societies are critical to acknowledge.
2012, 2013; Elzinga, 2009; Korsmo, 2010; Feminist political ecology addresses how inequal-
Naylor et al., 2008; Turchetti et al., 2008; Mac- ity and unequal power relations – mediated and
dougall, 2004; Finnegan, 2004; Heymann et al., co-constituted through gender dynamics – have
2010; Bowen, 2005; Hulme, 2010). Of these silenced the knowledge of people ‘most affected
studies probing the discipline of glaciology, and marginalized by neoliberal, colonial, and
only a tiny subset analyze gender (exceptions patriarchal systems’ (Hanson and Buechler,
include Bloom, 1993; Bloom et al., 2008; Hulbe 2015: 6).
et al., 2010; Hevly, 1996) or approach human- Crucially for feminist glaciology, feminist
glacier interactions from the perspective of political ecology argues for the integration of
feminist postcolonial science studies or feminist alternative ways of knowing, beyond diverse
political ecology (exceptions include Williams women’s knowledges to include – more broadly –
and Golovnev, 2015; Cruikshank, 2005). Fewer the unsettling of Eurocentric knowledges, the
still recognize indigenous knowledges, local per- questioning of dominant assumptions, and the
spectives, or alternative narratives of glaciers, diversification of modes and methods of knowl-
even though large populations of non-Western edge production through the incorporation of
and indigenous peoples inhabit mountain and everyday lived experiences, storytelling, narra-
cold regions near glaciers and possess impor- tive, and visual methods (Harris, 2015). This
tant knowledge about cryoscapes (Carey inclusion of alternative knowledges and narra-
et al., 2015; Nüsser and Baghel, 2014; Drew, tives alongside analysis of colonialism and
2012). inequality, such as race relations (Mollett and
Feminist and postcolonial theories enrich and Faria, 2013), fits squarely into more recent fem-
complement each other by showing how gender inist political ecologies that increasingly go
and colonialism are co-constituted, as well as ‘beyond gender’. This means that the research
how both women and indigenous peoples builds on ‘a history of boundary-breaking ideas
have been marginalized historically (Schnabel, [that] makes possible the present-day spaces
2014). Feminist glaciology builds from feminist where feminist geographers explore power,

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Carey et al. 5

justice, and knowledge production, ideas that Louise Séguin sailed secretly on Captain Yves
encompass but also surpass a focus on gender’ Joseph de Kerguelen’s 1773 voyage to the
(Coddington, 2015: 215). Antarctic region (Lewander, 2009: 92). She
Feminist glaciology raises critical concep- made scientific observations and discoveries
tual, analytical, and epistemological questions but, at first, hid from public visibility. Subse-
that are largely absent in the 21st-century love quent publicity about her presence tarnished
affair with glaciers and ice. The framework Kerguelen’s reputation and contributions, thereby
offered here strives to open discussions, to intro- demonstrating not only how women’s roles
duce avenues of investigation, and to suggest and activities have been eclipsed but also how
ways forward not only for scientific enquiry discovery and exploration were supposed to be
that includes the environmental humanities and men’s terrain. National exploration, scientific
social sciences, but also for public perceptions practices, and patriarchy all resulted in the
of glaciers. Examples within this review and exclusion of women and the restriction of gla-
synthesis article are primarily meant to expose ciological (and other) knowledge.
the value and various dimensions of the feminist Of course women were not entirely absent
glaciology framework; they are not meant to from glaciology and related disciplines and
be comprehensive, but rather starting points activities. Fanny Bullock Workman, a famous
to indicate lines of future investigation into mountaineer who also studied glaciers in the
this major gap in glacier studies and its early 20th century, and Mary Morris Walcott,
related contribution to global environmental who photographed and measured glaciers in
change research and both human and physi- the Canadian Rockies in the late 19th and early
cal geography. 20th century, represent exceptions to the male-
dominated discipline of glaciology. In fact,
Workman was part of a larger group of early-
III Knowledge producers 20th-century women – such as Annie Smith
Since the origins of the field of glaciology in the Peck, who logged many first ascents and set ele-
19th century, the discipline has been dominated vation records in South America – who climbed
by men and masculinity. Glaciology, polar mountains to make a case for women’s suffrage
exploration, and mountaineering – profoundly and gender equality in the United States (Blum,
interconnected pursuits – have also been charac- 1980; Miller, 1984; Ellis, 2001; Peck, 1911);
terized by masculinist discourses that privileged there are also significant examples in Europe,
manly exertion, heroism, and conquest (Chisholm, such as Fanny Copeland (Clarke and Anteric,
2008; Schrepfer, 2005; Bloom, 1993; Brown, 2011). In mountaineering, however, men con-
2002). In polar sciences and Antarctica in par- tinued to be more numerous than women world-
ticular, women were marginalized and absent wide, even though an increasing number of
until at least the mid-20th century (Pyne, 1986; women have been climbing peaks and doing
Fogg, 1992), while a white, masculinist narra- glaciological research, especially since the
tive emerged instead (Bloom, 1993; Bloom 1970s (Blum, 1980; Frohlick, 1999–2000;
et al., 2008; Lewander, 2009). Women, if men- Miller, 1984; Logan, 2006; Maddrell, 2009).
tioned at all, were often cast as men’s curios- Nevertheless, it should be noted that neither
ities or companions, as wives or helpers masculinity nor the social construction of
(Hulbe et al., 2010). Their appearance was mountaineering have remained static over
almost always incidental to the aims of men time. It is important to probe the nuances of
and the male ship captains, expedition leaders, gender within each place and period under
and government officials. As just one example, consideration to avoid simplistic male-female

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6 Progress in Human Geography

binaries or fixed views of gender, glaciers, and reversing longstanding trends. Though women
mountaineering (Frohlick, 1999–2000). began publishing in the Journal of Glaciology
Both male-dominated glaciology and mascu- and the Annals of Glaciology soon after the jour-
linist narratives about glacier knowledge nals emerged in the late 1940s (e.g. Owston and
production have persisted despite the slowly Lonsdale, 1948), they only accounted for one or
increasing participation of women in glaciology two articles a year, and many years had no
since the 1970s. When women did begin work- female authors in either journal. Those numbers
ing in Antarctica, media commentary and rose from 10 women in total publishing in the
reporting often portrayed them as ‘girls’ who two journals in 1979 to 55 women in 1990,
were ‘invading’ male terrain (Burns, 2000; see though there was another dip in numbers in the
also Chipman, 1986). A leading science journal- early 1990s, until a steady increase to the pres-
ist of his time, Walter Sullivan (1969) of the ent (Hulbe et al., 2010). Despite significant
New York Times, described the first all-women progress for women in glaciology since 1979,
scientific expedition to Antarctica in 1969 as women in 2009 still represented less than 20
‘an incursion of females’ into ‘the largest male percent of authors in these two flagship glaciol-
sanctuary remaining on this planet’. Another ogy journals (Hulbe et al., 2010). In terms of
article on this expedition speculated about the grant recipients and principal investigators, 24
women’s potential ‘loneliness’ or ‘the possibil- percent of PIs or co-PIs on US National Science
ity of running into a mad seal’ (Jordan, 1969), Foundation Office of Polar Programs in the
whereas a contemporaneous report of men’s period of the 4th International Polar Year
work was headlined ‘Antarctica: Men Risk (2007–9) were women, up only from 18 percent
Death to Unlock its Awesome Secrets’ (Laine, in 1997–9 (National Research Council, 2012).
1970). While men had agency and control over The male-dominated landscape is not confined
their fate, women were at the mercy of their to science and exploration: men dominate in
emotions and treacherous nature. The British Arctic literature as well. Of the 1945 works of
were especially slow to support female scien- literature on the Arctic and northern regions that
tists in Antarctica, not allowing women to join are part of the International Laboratory of the
summer research expeditions until the early Comparative Multidisciplinary Study of Repre-
1980s and finally to over-winter until the early sentation of the North at the Université du
1990s. The British experience is especially Québec in Montreal, only 401 were authored
noteworthy because the glaciologist Elizabeth by women, which represents about 20 percent –
Morris was appointed Head of the Earth the same percentage of female characters in
Sciences Division of the British Antarctic Sur- these books (Chartier, 2008).
vey (BAS) before she became the first woman Measuring women’s involvement by track-
to join a BAS field team in Antarctica in 1987 ing their published literature or other similar
(Hulbe et al., 2010). Norwegian Polar Institute metrics risks recognizing women in glaciology
glaciologist Elisabeth Isaksson expresses her dis- only if they behave like men or do the things that
may about that 1987 expedition, recalling that men do, such as earning a PhD in a university
Morris ‘had to talk to all of the researchers’ wives where men hold the majority of leadership
and ensure them that she would not hit on their and faculty positions, or publishing in peer-
husbands’. Isaksson explains that ‘it’s like you reviewed journals often managed by men. It
think you’re hearing it wrong, that we’re talking also ignores the preponderance of sexual harass-
about 1887 and not 1987’ (Aukland, 2014). ment and sexual assault by field scientists in
Marked shifts in women’s roles in glaciology other disciplines, especially at early career stages.
and polar research occurred during the 1980s, Clancy et al. (2014) sampled 666 researchers in

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Carey et al. 7

other science fields to find that 64 percent of Participants confirm the importance of an all-
women reported they had experienced sexual women team, noting in particular the benefits
harassment, while more than 20 percent revealed of female scientist role models (Wertheim,
they had experienced sexual assault. Women 2005; also see http://girlsonice.org/category/
were 3.5 times more likely to experience harass- reflections/). These experiences and insights are
ment than men, indicating its gendered nature. critical for women in a field in which men typi-
While the Clancy et al. (2014) study is not about cally run the graduate programs, edit the jour-
glaciology field work or the experiences of nals, and peer review the majority of papers
female glaciologists per se, it illuminates trends (Hulbe et al., 2010).
in these other fieldwork-focused disciplines to Local, non-Western, and indigenous societ-
suggest that analyzing only the numbers of par- ies are often no more egalitarian than scientific
ticipating women in glaciology may obscure disciplines such as glaciology, and thus they,
many other aspects of gender discrimination in too, experience differential representation in the
glaciology. production of environmental knowledges
To balance out the male-dominated world of (Cochrane, 2014). Klein et al. (2014) report in
glaciology, unique programs such as ‘Girls on their study of Tibetan herders’ understandings
Ice’ seek to provide glaciology (and life) train- and observations of climate change, for exam-
ing for high-school-aged young women in field ple, that bias and inequality exist in those com-
schools in Alaska and Washington state. This munities in Nagchu Prefecture. It was not
program offers an alternative to the more possible to achieve gender balance in their inter-
traditional path to a career in glaciology or any views, for instance, because women repeatedly
field as it specifically focuses on empowering refused to be interviewed, citing their own lack
women through their experiences with and of knowledge and illustrating how dominant
research about glaciers. While the program may perceptions of ‘glaciology’ can emerge, which
perpetuate a male-female binary that feminist may in some cases suppress alternative knowl-
studies and queer theory have long sought to edges. Women often do possess different
dismantle, Girls on Ice plays a key role in gla- knowledge about glaciers due to many issues,
ciology to provide female role models, to under- such as: spending more time than men attending
stand glaciers in unique experiential ways, to to livestock near Andean glaciers (Dunbar and
imbue teenage women with the confidence to Medina Marcos, 2012); managing agriculture,
become scientists and community leaders, and terracing, and irrigation that includes the distri-
to inspire them about learning science (Pettit bution of glacier runoff in highland Peruvian
et al., 2010). The program’s founder, Erin Pettit, communities (Bolin, 2009); being responsible
maintains that it is essential to restrict Girls on for mobility, storage, and shelter amidst changes
Ice solely to young women: to snowfall and other cryospheric changes on
the Tibetan Plateau (Yeh et al., 2014); expres-
This is a course to get dirty, wear clothing or har- sing water supplies in the Ganges River through
nesses and helmets that are not necessarily the
spiritual frameworks that contradict hydrologic
most beautiful or flattering. Our society has
models (Drew, 2012); and responding to dimin-
taught girls not to like any of those things, and
to not show their interest or intelligence in sci- ishing water supplies in Tajikistan mountains
ence. But I want to provide a space without that with more efficient water use practices, as
pressure – where the girls can show their interest, opposed to men’s reactions to emigrate from
their intelligence, their strength. Then when they their communities (Christmann and Aw-Hassan,
get back home, hopefully they will feel a bit less 2015). Nevertheless, it is critical to avoid objec-
constrained (quoted in Bolen, 2006). tifying women’s vulnerability, clinging to a

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8 Progress in Human Geography

sharp male-female binary, or portraying women and underscores the disconnect between local
as passive victims. After all, climate change women’s knowledge and Western scientific
can lead to the breakdown of stereotypical conclusions expressed in the IPCC and else-
gender roles and even ‘gender renegotiation’ where. Williams and Golovnev believe this is
(Godden, 2013). Moreover, the romanticiza- vital to illustrate, given the ways in which policy
tion of women’s environmental sensibilities is too often based solely on Western science.
or the over-classification of women as poverty- ‘The Western climate science-to-policy para-
stricken and marginalized in local communities digm’, they conclude, ‘paralyzes public agency
can render them passive; such representations through elitist mechanistic science, market-
often privilege environmental forces – such as cli- driven governance decisions, and globally
mate, glaciers, drought, or hydrology – acting on dominant consumer skewed media network
women, without sufficient analysis of power rela- products. This approach to environmental gov-
tions and inequalities that more profoundly affect ernance is oppressive for peoples with different
vulnerability and knowledge disparities (Arora- cultural configurations’ (Williams and Golov-
Jonsson, 2011). nev, 2015: 220). Involving local indigenous
One way to diversify knowledge production women – or any marginalized groups – facili-
and collect environmental knowledge from tates equality and self-determination while
local women is through emerging methodolo- simultaneously producing more equitable dis-
gies, such as locally-led indigenous ethnographic cussions about the cryoscape, climate, and glo-
video (audio-visual storytelling) among women bal environmental change.
in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan (Williams
and Golovnev, 2015). This project’s goal was to
examine how local indigenous assessments of
IV Gendered science
climate change and glacier shrinkage corre- and knowledge
sponded with scientific, governmental, and The history of glaciology is not simply about the
NGO conclusions. Team leaders specifically ubiquity of men and the absence and/or erasure
sought women’s voices and contributions after of women. It is also about how scientific prac-
recognizing that women generally did not hold tices and results are gendered. Many natural sci-
public positions of authority. Ultimately the ence fields have historically been defined by,
video production process not only involved and their credibility built upon, manly attributes
local women in three communities, but also such as heroic (often nationalistic) exploration
went beyond participation to achieve active colla- and triumphs over hostile, wild, and remote
boration in both the video creation and the collec- landscapes (Terrall, 1998). Feminist science
tion of climate- and glacier-related knowledge. studies began critiquing the gendered dimen-
Knowledge about changing climatic conditions sions of environmental knowledge several
and glaciers varied among the women involved, decades ago (Merchant, 1980; Plumwood,
with one participant appreciating the warmer 1993; Haraway, 1988). These scholars and
weather at high elevation, another lamenting the others since (e.g. Buck et al., 2014) have
loss of a glacial lake for its hydrologic impacts, argued that the Baconian view of knowledge
and another who inhabited an urban area being engendered a strong tendency in the environ-
largely unfamiliar with nearby environmental mental sciences to classify, measure, map, and,
changes. ideally, dominate and control nonhuman nature
Including these divergent local voices and as if it were a knowable and predictable
perspectives diversifies (and localizes) the infor- machine, rather than dynamic, chaotic, unpre-
mation produced in national climate assessments dictable, and coupled natural-human systems.

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Carey et al. 9

Such feminist critiques apply today to glaciol- eau-de-vie, the only drink that could be kept
ogy, climate sciences, and global environmen- liquid, the tongue and lips froze instantly
tal change research more broadly. Terry (2009: against the cup and could only be torn away
6), for example, argues that climate discourse bleeding’ (quoted in Terrall, 1998: 230). Terrall
‘is still a stereotypically ‘‘masculine’’ one, of (1998: 230) concludes that ‘the physical
new technologies, large-scale economic instru- strength and perseverance necessary to conquer
ments, and complex computer modeling’, such obstacles made of the returning men of sci-
which for glaciers can render them static, essen- ence not just selfless seekers of truth, but tough
tialized, and passive (also see Moosa and adventurers’. But the Lapland and Peru expedi-
Tuana, 2014). tions were also about promoting France’s pres-
Fleming (2010) finds a similar story of dom- tige in the wake of new scientific discoveries:
ination in the climate sciences, in which male triumph over hostile nature and isolated
20th-century scientists and engineers used spaces in the name of science fed nationalism
cloud seeding and other geoengineering strate- and colonialism, and these forces co-constituted
gies to manipulate weather, steer storms, and a masculinist glaciology.
make rain. Technoscientific control is a domi- When debates about glacier motion emerged
nant trope in climate change discourse and in the second half of the 19th century, two
knowledge, and it is by nature highly gendered central protagonists – the early leading glaciol-
(Israel and Sachs, 2013). Much geographical ogists James Forbes and John Tyndall – com-
fieldwork involves this masculinist reflexivity peted for credibility by pinning their scientific
generating supposed objectivity through dis- contributions to their abilities as ‘manly’ moun-
tance from and disinterest in the subject taineers and heroic conquerors of the European
(Coddington, 2015; Sundberg, 2003). These Alps. Forbes theorized that glaciers behaved
conclusions transcend gendered dimensions of more like a semi-fluid body, flowing downhill
knowledge by acknowledging broader trends as a viscous fluid rather than as a solid object.
in Western sciences that have sought to place He highlighted his fieldwork in the mountains
science at a god-like vantage from nowhere, and among the glaciers to legitimate his theory.
ignoring both situated knowledges and the geo- Tyndall, on the other hand, argued that glaciers
graphy of science (Haraway, 1988; Shapin, moved more like a solid substance flowing
1998; Livingstone, 2003). over bedrock. He eventually triumphed in this
Gendered aspects of cryospheric knowledge debate, contends Hevly (1996), because Tyndall
have existed for centuries. In the 1730s, for mobilized his greater fame as a mountaineer –
instance, the French crown sent geodetic expe- having achieved many pioneering first ascents –
ditions to Peru and the Arctic (Lapland). and deployed a rhetoric of manly risk and
The naturalist-adventurers chronicled in their exertion. There was what Hevly calls a ‘cul-
reports how they overcame savage environ- ture of field science’ in the 19th century that
ments and bitter cold conditions, frequently cel- favored ‘authentic, rigorous, manly experi-
ebrating their selfless, heroic risk taking. As the ence’, and scientists – let alone women – who
Arctic explorer Pierre-Louis Moreau de Mau- did not explicitly demonstrate that their glacio-
pertuis explained (characteristically for this logical conclusions stemmed from heroic,
genre of scientific writing), ‘you may imagine manly adventures struggled to make their sci-
what it is to walk in two feet of snow, carrying entific claims credible. Glaciology was for
heavy measuring sticks, which must be continu- muscular gentlemen scientists. Women could
ally set down in the snow and retrieved. All this read about glaciers in the Alps, but they were
in a cold so great that when we tried to drink not fit for glaciological research, field science,

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10 Progress in Human Geography

or even alpine tourism. And men like Forbes (1958–70), for example, attempted to frame the
who lacked the manly heroism of risk-taking Arctic as an ‘experimental space’ rather than an
mountaineers lost scientific credibility that ‘expeditionary space’, as the basis of the cred-
hinged on masculinism. ibility of both their scientific work and Canada’s
Heroic conquests were also central to Arctic territorial aspirations. Yet, their deployment of
and Antarctic exploration from the 19th cen- ‘a precarious authority of experiment’ fared
tury. The Arctic was an important site of Amer- poorly in the course of difficult Arctic field
ican exploration in the 19th century because it work; they could not escape the ‘Boy Scout atti-
was a space where the nation’s anxieties about tude to Arctic fieldwork’ and the ‘epistemic
the perils of over-civilization, ‘manly character baggage of the exploratory tradition and adven-
and racial purity’ could be tested (Robinson, turous observation’. Though these attempted
2006). Ice had a great hold on the British imag- reframings of Arctic work did not preclude
ination at the same time, as the Arctic was a latent masculinities, they did suggest tensions
space in which British explorers could manifest with more explicit masculinities (Powell, 2007).
their evangelical Christianity while simultane- These masculinist and heroic narratives per-
ously affirming the place of women in the sist today. The Ohio State University glaciolo-
domestic sphere through passive consumption gist Lonnie Thompson, who extracts and
of heroic and manly stories (Spufford, 1999). studies high-mountain ice cores, for example,
Antarctic exploration in the first half of the has been described as today’s ‘Indiana Jones’
20th century continued this emphasis on manly and ‘one of the true scientific heroes of our age’
endeavor, especially through military struc- (Struck, 2006; Krajick, 2002). While Thompson
tures, such as through the centrality of the Royal conscientiously studies ice and works with local
Navy to British expeditions at both poles, or the communities (Bowen, 2005), media and popu-
mid-20th-century American projections into lar accounts cast him, regardless of his actual
Antarctica (Belanger, 2006; Rose, 1980) and the intentions, as a pioneer explorer, overcoming
Arctic (Farish, 2013; Martin-Nielsen, 2012, hardships and conquering supposedly unknown
2013). These same masculinist tendencies were mountains in distant places. Most popular
also reinforced through the scientific and geo- accounts of Thompson – which often overlook
graphical institutions that sponsored research the presence of his wife, Ellen Mosley-
and exploration, such as the Royal Geographi- Thompson, a world-renowned ice researcher –
cal Society in London – which did not admit focus explicitly on his overcoming asthma and
women fellows until 1913 (Jones, 2003) – or the a host of other obstacles while conducting field-
Scott Polar Research Institute at the University work. Overcoming personal hardship is also at
of Cambridge, where work, despite discourses the center of the documentary film Chasing Ice
of masculine adventure and field research, (Exposure, 2012), and its protagonist, the film-
relied on the (barely recognized) library and maker photographer James Balog. Instead of
administrative labor of women (Roberts, 2011). focusing on the glaciers that Balog photographs,
Masculine and heroic rhetoric was so domi- the film follows him and his Extreme Ice Survey
nant that attempts to reframe discourses of Arc- into ‘treacherous terrain’ where Balog struggles
tic work in the 1950s and 1960s – as part of with failing knees, strenuous conditions, falling
broader attempts by environmental scientists rocks and ice, and existential risk to tell the tale
to make their science more ‘scientific’ through of vanishing glaciers. Balog’s assistants even
experimentation rather than observation – had wonder in one scene if they should have stuck
limited success. The scientific leaders of to their office job given the risks they face in the
the Canadian Polar Continental Shelf Project field. Balog may not have chosen this approach,

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Carey et al. 11

but the filmmakers and media adhere to tropes environment, and altruistically overcome death
of masculine vigor, risk, adventurous explora- to get glacier runoff data. As Lincoln Pitcher
tion, and heroic science to attract audiences and was quoted as saying, if his fellow researcher
validate research, thereby sustaining these mas- fell into the river atop the ice sheet, ‘the death
culinist glacier narratives into the 21st century. rate is 100 percent’ (Davenport et al., 2015).
Thompson and Balog’s work is impressive to The article focuses very little on the scientific
be sure because collecting the data they gath- questions asked, or even the scientific implica-
ered was no easy feat and they are yielding tions of the study beyond broad claims about
insights for science and climate change impacts. glacier shrinkage and sea level rise. It focuses
But read alongside older heroic scientific narra- instead on the processes of doing glaciological
tives, the masculinist attributions ascribed to science, not the science itself. Yet New York
this type of field science remain prevalent over Times coverage for these researchers – espe-
three centuries. To be credible, glaciologists, cially the graduate student at the center of it –
according to most commentators, still need to can significantly enhance a career. In this way,
be experienced mountain climbers to overcome the portrayal of masculinist researchers in the
high altitude, limited oxygen, cold tempera- media (because that is what sells, presumably)
tures, circumscribed logistical support, and can shape scientific credibility in the academy,
overall rugged working conditions. As Savage such as with hiring and possibly even with peer
(2015: 396) reports in the journal Nature, reviewing. Being a pioneer, being first, endur-
‘Young scientists who are considering a career ing physical hardship, risking death, overcom-
in ice-core palaeoclimatology ought to have ing wild nature – in short, being as manly as
some experience with climbing, says Doug the Victorian mountaineer-glaciologists were
Hardy of the University of Massachusetts more than a century ago – continues to influ-
Amherst, if only to know whether or not they ence scientists’ credibility, or on the other side,
can handle it.’ While Savage recognizes that their lack of credibility for those who cannot
those without ‘the inclination or the ability to pitch their research through such masculinist
climb glaciers’ can find other positions in frameworks.
glaciology, such as computer modeling, the
article’s sub-headline (‘Climb any mountain:
Glaciology is an outdoors game’) certainly does V Systems of scientific domination
not celebrate these indoor desk jobs. Nor does Feminist glaciology builds on feminist postco-
such a depiction consider class barriers for entry lonial science studies and feminist political
into the field, such as the high costs of acquiring ecology to understand how gender, power, and
and maintaining necessary alpine skills. Alter- inequality are embedded in systems of scientific
native knowledges and practices are margina- domination (Schiebinger, 2014). Such power
lized in this sustained masculinist atmosphere, structures maintain glaciology as a discipline
restricting scientific questions asked, practi- concentrated in the wealthy developed world,
tioners involved, methods employed, sites stud- often termed the Global North, with generally
ied, and results achieved. weak institutional representation from the
Manliness in the field thus makes the science developing world or indigenous communities.
(and scientist) more credible. A recent feature in This pattern exists for global climate simula-
the New York Times follows researchers onto tions in general, which are conducted by Eur-
the Greenland ice sheet, for example, where opean and North American scientists with
they race against time and a precarious helicop- little to no representation from Central and
ter, survive the ‘frozen landscape’ of this hostile South America, Africa, the Middle East, or

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12 Progress in Human Geography

South Asia (Edwards, 2011). The feminist lens alternative visions of ice compared to Western
is crucial for effective analysis of what might sciences. Cruikshank (2005) explains for North-
look on the surface like postcolonial or hegemo- west North America that knowledge of the land-
nic structures of development. But global power scape is influenced profoundly by culture,
imbalances and gender inequality co-constitute gender, age, and the personal experiences of
each other – and the natural sciences and gla- each individual living with glaciers. Addition-
ciology in particular. Current climate change ally, whereas glaciologists may try to measure
discussions, for example, perpetuate power dis- glaciers and understand ice physics by studying
crepancies through what Israel and Sachs (2013: the glacial ice itself, indigenous accounts do
34–5) refer to as ‘the centrality of mathematical not portray the ice as passive, to be measured
and technological science . . . structured by mas- and mastered in a stereotypically masculinist
culinist ideologies of domination and mastery’, sense. ‘The glaciers these women speak of’,
thus determining who can or cannot participate explains Cruikshank (2005: 51–3), ‘engage
in climate science and policy-making. Such all the senses. [The glaciers] are willful, capri-
institutional, cultural, and scientific practices cious, easily excited by human intemperance,
also affect glaciological knowledge. While but equally placated by quick-witted human
there are, on paper, few recognized glaciologists responses. Proper behavior is deferential. I was
from the Global South (for exceptions see warned, for instance, about firm taboos against
Carey, 2010), such recognition is predicated ‘‘cooking with grease’’ near glaciers that are
upon a specific type of knowledge production offended by such smells. . . . Cooked food, espe-
that is restricted to a group of scientists who cially fat, might grow into a glacier overnight if
often cannot be divorced from larger processes improperly handled.’ The narratives Cruik-
of colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and shank collected show how humans and nature
capitalist resource extraction. are intimately linked, and subsequently demon-
Questions of who produces glaciological strate the capacity of folk glaciologies to diver-
knowledge, and how such knowledge is used sify the field of glaciology and subvert the
or shared, take on real implications when con- hegemony of natural sciences.
sidered through feminist postcolonial science Such knowledge diversification, however,
studies and feminist political ecology lenses. can meet resistance, as folk glaciologies chal-
Specifically, the feminist approach opens up lenge existing power dynamics and cultures of
marginalized knowledge and exposes how control within glaciology. For instance, in
larger structures of domination have worked response to Cruikshank’s detailed and highly
historically to suppress certain voices. It reveals acclaimed research, geographer Cole Harris
how people across the planet have been living suggested instead that Cruikshank attributed
with glaciers for centuries and have produced too much weight to ‘Native’ stories and non-
wide ranges of glaciological knowledge – folk scientific understandings of glaciers. He ques-
glaciology – that is rarely recognized within the tioned the relevance of indigenous narratives
scientific discipline of modern glaciology. We about sentient glaciers in today’s modern world
use the term ‘folk glaciology’ to refer to signif- by explaining how he consulted a colleague, ‘an
icant glacier-oriented knowledges produced at expert on snow’, about why glaciers advanced
different times and places by diverse peoples, rapidly (surged). The expert ‘spoke of ground
cultures, and social groups. water, friction, and the laws of physics. Is it pos-
For instance, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, sible, I [Harris] asked, that they surge because
glacier knowledge of elder indigenous women they don’t like the smell of grease? He looked
has both a gendered context and offers at me blankly, slowly shook his head, and

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Carey et al. 13

retreated into his office’ (Harris, 2005: 105). imperialism and geopolitical expansion –
Harris is asking what place indigenous knowl- already highly gendered projects in themselves
edge and storytelling have in the world. (Cohn, 1987; Levine, 2007; Woollacott, 2006)
Although his other work has examined indigen- – in turn helping to materially and discursively
ous understandings and uses of local space, undergird those projects. The United States, for
nature, and resources (e.g. Harris, 2002), in the example, had an overwhelmingly militarized
case of his Cruikshank critique Harris seemed relationship with the polar regions in the early
uncomfortable accepting that knowledge is situ- Cold War period, from which glaciology bene-
ated in particular places and contexts (Haraway, fitted immensely, gaining institutional
1988; Livingstone, 2003), that values and mor- resources, growth, standing, and credibility.
als related to ice vary across cultures (e.g. Gear- The US Antarctic operations Highjump and
heard et al., 2013; Krupnik et al., 2010), and Windmill in the late 1940s were intended to pre-
that, as Cruikshank illustrates quite clearly, pare the military for conflicts in cold regions, in
glaciological mapping and other scientific the process constituting, for US scientists espe-
research existed within and facilitated systems cially, a regionally-expansive and
of colonial expansion, capitalist resource technologically-driven domination of the south
extraction, and the subjugation of indigenous polar region (Belanger, 2006; Rose, 1980).
peoples in the region (Cruikshank, 2005, The US had a similarly militarized relation-
2012a, 2012b). It must be emphasized that ship with the Arctic (Farish, 2013; Martin-
Cruikshank does not advocate a simple inclu- Nielsen, 2012, 2013). In 1949, US Air Force
sion of local or indigenous knowledge into Lt. Col. Emil Beaudry convinced his superiors
Western knowledge or global technocratic or that, as Greenland was likely to be the ‘avenue
bureaucratic practice, arguing that this systema- of approach for untold destruction, [and] unless
tizing ‘can set in motion processes that fracture guarded could well spell doom for the United
and fragment human experience’ (Cruikshank, States as a nation’, whichever country was able
2004, p. 18). Conscious of this position, the to ‘completely master [Greenland] would pos-
feminist glaciology framework asks that sess a new weapon that could not be countered
researchers accept a plurality of knowledges or molested’ (quoted in Martin-Nielsen, 2012:
and recognize embedded systems of domina- 69–71). Mastering and defending Greenland,
tion. The goal is neither to force glaciologists however, required mastering its ice sheet, and
to believe that glaciers listen nor to make indi- new glaciological knowledge was only possible
genous peoples put their full faith in scientists’ with the resources available to the US military.
mathematical equations and computer-gener- In 1949 Henri Bader, the chief scientist for the
ated models (devoid of meaning, spirituality, US government’s Snow, Ice and Permafrost
and reciprocal human-nature relationships). Research Establishment (SIPRE), complained
Rather, the goal is to understand that environ- that, while there was general knowledge of the
mental knowledge is always based in systems location and easily-discernible characteristics
of power discrepancies and unequal social rela- of glaciers, more complex and sophisticated
tions, and overcoming these disparities requires knowledge of their physical processes was poor
accepting that multiple knowledges exist and (Bader, 1949: 1309). The substantial growth of
are valid within their own contexts. glaciology in subsequent decades relied, to an
While folk glaciologies were often margina- important degree, on these military demands.
lized through Western colonialism, the disci- This militarization of the polar regions and the
pline of glaciology experienced growth and intellectual and institutional growth of glaciol-
support as a result of European and US ogy were part of broader US geopolitical visions

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14 Progress in Human Geography

and strategies during the Cold War, which were that illustrate the importance of feminist glaciol-
pursued by a particular group of men as policy- ogy extending ‘beyond gender’ to other aspects
makers who were products of specific elite mas- of inequality, power-knowledge dynamics, and
culinities (Dean, 2003), operating in the context imperialism. In official US discourse, retreating
of anxieties about American masculinities glaciers are framed as threats to national secu-
(Cuordileone, 2005), and with particular dis- rity and international stability, and therefore
courses of masculinity and male bodies, espe- knowledge of ice is essential to maintaining
cially in distant places like the Arctic (Farish, geopolitical power. Retreating glaciers rank
2010). with drought, flooding, sea level rise, and epi-
Structures of power and domination also sti- demics as critical threats to US national secu-
mulated the first large-scale ice core drilling proj- rity. Former CIA director R. James Woolsey
ects – these archetypal masculinist projects to explained when he testified before the US
literally penetrate glaciers and extract for mea- House of Representatives in February 2009 that:
surement and exploitation the ice in Greenland
One of the fastest set [sic] of melting glaciers is
and Antarctica. These ice cores, which have
apparently in the Andes, and if we think we have
revealed glacial-interglacial cycles and validated
trouble coming up with a sound and agreed-upon
trajectories of both climate change and anthropo- immigration policy for the United States now,
genic warming, also began as part of American what is it going to be like if our southern borders
and Soviet Cold War geostrategic projections into are seeing millions of our hungry and thirsty
the polar regions. The first ice core from Camp southern neighbors headed toward temperate
Century in Greenland emerged from a drilling climates?
program begun in 1959, even before Willi Dans-
gaard introduced a method of isotope analysis for For Woolsey, US national security hinges on
paleoclimates. Ice coring, in other words, began increased knowledge of glaciers, much as it was
with a military purpose but eventually found a integral to Canadian and US expansion into the
scientific function (Martin-Nielsen, 2013). The Yukon and Alaska in the 19th century, as well as
even longer ice cores from Vostok in the center to Soviet and US strategists in the early Cold
of the East Antarctic ice sheet began with similar War years. Systems of domination and struc-
geostrategic motives: the Soviet Union was trying tures of power and patriarchy have long fed the
to exert its control of Antarctica by establishing production of glaciological knowledge.
the Vostok Station at the ‘pole of relative inacces-
sibility’ – the furthest point from the sea in Ant-
arctica. Ice core drilling at Vostok began in the VI Alternative representations
late 1950s, and by the 1980s the core offered a If the intersecting forces of colonialism, neoli-
longer climatic record than the first Camp Cen- beralism, and patriarchy have historically
tury core and clearly demonstrated the links silenced and marginalized certain ways of
between carbon dioxide levels and past tempera- knowing and types of knowledge produced by
tures (Ueda and Talalay, 2007; Turchetti et al., particular groups, such as women or indigenous
2008). These ice cores were born in the contest for people, then feminist glaciology – drawing from
scientific authority and geostrategic control of the feminist political ecology and feminist postco-
polar regions, manifesting the centrality of lonial science studies – seeks to expose those
power, conquest, and national security in the his- more-than-science voices and offer a diversity
tory of glaciological knowledge. of representations of cryoscapes. Researchers
The military and geopolitical dimensions of across a range of disciplines have increasingly
glaciers persist today, albeit in different forms advocated for greater plurality in knowledge

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Carey et al. 15

about and representations of global environ- images, characters, performances, and artworks.
mental change. Castree et al. (2014: 765), for Artists including Resa Blatman, Zaria Forman,
example, contend that Camille Seaman, Spencer Tunick, Claudia
Märzendorfer, and Joan Perlman articulate new
other forms of knowledge, discourse and under- narratives of human-glacier relationships by
standing [beyond natural sciences] must be prop-
approaching ice through feeling and affect,
erly acknowledged, precisely because they both
emotional response, sense of place, the personal
affect, and are affected by, science and technology.
These forms range beyond the cognitive to encom- and the intimate, kinship and family rather than
pass the moral, spiritual, aesthetic and affective. through the attributes and characteristics of
the dominant, masculinist scientific glaciology
These calls align with those of feminist political often characterized by control, prediction, ice
ecology and feminist postcolonial science stud- penetration, measurement, and quantification.
ies that seek to unsettle dominant Western Many of the examples below from the visual
assumptions, narratives, and representations and literary arts veer away from the more typi-
which tend to privilege the natural sciences and cal, masculinist representations of glaciers by
often emerge through the co-constituted pro- offering alternative gendered ice depictions.
cesses of colonialism, patriarchy, and unequal For instance, Scottish visual artist Katie
power relations (Harding, 2009). Dominant nar- Paterson’s 2007 work, Langjökull, Snæfellsjö-
ratives can erase local, regional, and even kull, Solheimajökull, depicts the impermanence
national variation and the diversity of perspec- of glaciers while broadening the notion of gla-
tives, including those of women and other mar- ciers as repositories for climatic records and
ginalized peoples (Israel and Sachs, 2013). diverting what it means to ‘record’ and be a
Feminist political ecologists have thus sought ‘record’ (Paterson, 2007). Paterson chronicled
to use innovative research methods such as the ordinary sounds of the Langjökull, Snæfells-
storytelling, narrative, literature, and the visual jökull, and Solheimajökull glaciers in Iceland,
arts to go ‘beyond gender’ to find new voices and then transferred the audio tracks to LP
discussing and representing global environmen- micro-groove vinyl ‘ice’ records – records cre-
tal change (Harris, 2015; Mollett and Faria, ated by casting and freezing the glaciers’ own
2013; Coddington, 2015: 215). Feminist gla- meltwater. She then played the frozen records
ciology promotes alternative glacier representa- simultaneously on three turntables as they
tions (which include folk glaciologies) and calls melted. The audio recordings (available at
for transdisciplinary knowledge integration and http://www.katiepaterson.org/icerecords/) fuse
methodology, which is crucial for putting gla- glacier sounds with the high whine of the ice
cier knowledges into their human contexts record itself. After ten minutes, the actual ice
(Hewitt, 2014a). LP record deteriorates and the sound melts
In contrast to trends in masculinist glaciol- away. Climatic data from ice core records are
ogy, one example of alternative glacier repre- often imported into climate models, while rates
sentations includes glacier-oriented visual and of glacier retreat chronicling meters melted per
literary arts, which are particularly illustrative year are usually taken directly at face value,
of how ice may be meaningful and significant with policy implications. Both the ice cores and
beyond common efforts of control and domina- ice loss measurements feed homogenizing
tion. Visual and literary arts re-position and global narratives of glaciers with somewhat
re-envision glaciers as greater than their usual restricted views of the cryosphere, lacking emo-
status as passive research subjects and into var- tional and sensory interactions with the ice that
ious cultural fields comprised of social myths, occurs in Paterson’s artworks. Paterson and

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16 Progress in Human Geography

other artists thus intervene in such ‘truths’ by generally associated with scientific credibility
presenting purposefully imprecise social and and accuracy. Such a gaze has been troubled
scientific methodologies and works. Paterson’s by feminist researchers who argue that the ‘con-
artwork builds on an earlier project where she quering gaze’ makes an implicit claim on who
submerged a phone line connected to Vatnajökull, has the power to see and not be seen (see e.g.
Iceland and Europe’s largest glacier. People Gaard, 1993; Harding, 1987; Merchant, 1987).
could call the glacier (þ44(0)7757001122) and Burko’s aerial paintings additionally interact
listen to the distinctive pops, trills, and gurgles with common representations of glaciers through
of the ice. More than ten thousand people images constructed with GIS and satellite tech-
called during the installation. Such a project nologies. Garb (1994) applies a feminist science
demonstrates how the social constructions of studies lens to consider this ‘distant-view’ as
space, time, and knowledge can be manipulated masculine, reminiscent of detached, voyeuris-
in significant ways and can engage human tic, ‘pornographic’ images. Burko’s glacier
senses. Paterson’s work challenges the conceits paintings challenge assumptions about exper-
of scientific distance and impartiality: glaciers tise (who has access to and knowledge of such
are no longer remote but just a phone call away. technologies that determine widely-circulated
These interactions and acquaintances with the glacier representations), about local knowledge
ice diverge from the more masculinist domina- (much messier and complicated than satellite
tion of the glaciers in polar colonial science, ice imagery), and about universalism (where earth
core extraction, and quantification. systems and satellite representations obscure
Other artists offer alternative glacier repre- on-the-ground details and contexts). More
sentations by melding science and art. In broadly, however, Burko’s work contests the per-
Columbia Glacier 4, 1990 USGS 2011, land- ceived gulf between art and science itself: glacier
scape painter Diane Burko depicts a realistic artwork does teach about glaciology, even if it is
image of a white-yellow thickly painted glacier not satellite imagery from ‘true’ satellites.
pouring into a dark foreground. The prominent In addition to glacier artwork, there is also a
red stylized time stamp in the lower right corner growing body of literature that expands under-
is evocative of common scientific images of standings of the cryosphere and grapples with
glaciers. Juxtaposing a clearly ‘painted’ glacier, core issues in feminist geography. Uzma Aslam
Burko blurs the lines of authority and science, Khan’s (2010) short story ‘Ice, Mating’, for
pushing viewers to consider how glacier narra- example, explores religious, nationalistic, and
tives are produced, circulated, and given cred- colonial themes in Pakistan, while also featur-
ibility and authority across time and space, ing intense sexual symbolism of glaciers acting
and by whom. Her paintings, which utilize up- upon a landscape. Khan writes: ‘It was Farhana
to-date scientific data such as individual glacier who told me that Pakistan has more glaciers
recession rates, inhabit a socially problematic than anywhere outside the poles. And I’ve seen
more-than-science position of being simultane- them! I’ve even seen them fuck!’ (Khan, 2010:
ously ‘representationally accurate’ but also 102, emphasis in original). This fictional story
‘representationally artistic’. They thus chal- draws from local understandings of Karakoram
lenge dominant structures of authority and geomorphology, their cultures of glaciers and
hegemonic knowledge construction because in mountains, the gendered nature of landscape
more formal scientific glaciology these posi- perceptions, and the legacies of colonialism.
tions are often treated as mutually exclusive. In Khan’s story, glacier knowledge, while
Burko also paints glaciers from an aerial, top- highly sexualized, is acquired through locals’
down perspective, one that appropriates a gaze interactions with the surrounding glaciers

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Carey et al. 17

rather than through classic Western channels of experiences and challenged identities through
knowledge dissemination through reports and glacier loss. In Sheryl St. Germain’s (2001)
academic articles. Khan subverts traditional ‘To Drink a Glacier’, the author interprets her
roles of who acts upon whom, complicating experiences with Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier
patriarchal assumptions that, as with society, as sexual and intimate. When she drinks the gla-
nature must have rulers and the ruled (Keller, cier’s water, she reflects:
1983). Khan also points to the long tradition
of local women interacting with glaciers and That drink is like a kiss, a kiss that takes in the entire
early Western-funded glaciological expeditions body of the other . . . like some wondrous omnipo-
tent liquid tongue, touching our own tongues all
in the Karakoram (Hewitt, 2014b). By explicitly
over, the roofs and sides of our mouths, then mov-
highlighting women’s roles in producing gla-
ing in us and through to where it knows . . . I
ciological knowledge, the story simultaneously swallow, trying to make the spiritual, sexual
avoids and points out the common practice of sweetness of it last. (St. Germain, 2001: 201)
‘erasure’ in which the full range of participants
in the production of scientific knowledge (in The story portrays the glacier’s sensual, embo-
this case, women in glaciology) is ignored or died nature as the main character goes through
overlooked (Brooks and Hébert, 2006). her own midlife sexual awakening.
The American science fiction and fantasy St. Germain, LeGuin, Khan, and many oth-
author Ursula K. LeGuin has also explored ice ers – from Roni Horn (2009) to Pauline Couture
and glaciers in several works. Her novel The (2005) – approach glaciers from distant and var-
Left Hand of Darkness (LeGuin, 1969) upends ied disciplinary and artistic spaces compared
notions of gender while re-imagining masculine with glaciologists or even anthropologists
polar exploration. The novel sends two fugitives studying human-glacier interactions. Such
on an 81-day journey across the Gobrin Glacier alternative representations of glaciers are rarely
on the fictional planet of Winter. In a frozen incorporated or even acknowledged within
world without warfare, LeGuin imagines a greater discourses of glaciology and global
place without men and women, where there are environmental change research. Yet their
no fixed or different sexes. In her 1982 short voices should not simply be disregarded, over-
story Sur, LeGuin portrays a group of South shadowed by Western science, or, worse, rele-
American women who reach the South Pole two gated from policy contexts where, in fact, the
years before the all-male Amundsen and Scott human experience with ice matters greatly.
parties. But these women leave no record of These alternative representations from the
their activities in Antarctica, and upon their visual and literary arts do more than simply
return tell nobody of their feat. Such a radical, offer cross-disciplinary perspectives on the
postcolonial, feminist narrative about polar cryosphere. Instead, they reveal entirely different
exploration serves to underscore the history still approaches, interactions, relationships, percep-
perpetuated today, a history imbued with mas- tions, values, emotions, knowledges, and ways
culinity and heroic men (Bloom, 2008). of knowing and interacting with dynamic envir-
Other literature tackles emotional, psycholo- onments. They decenter the natural sciences, dis-
gical, and sexual interactions with glaciers. rupt masculinity, deconstruct embedded power
Alexis Smith’s (2012) debut novel Glacier fea- structures, depart from homogenous and masculi-
tures a main character who acts both as a meta- nist narratives about glaciers, and empower and
phor and a voice for the shrinking glaciers that incorporate different ways of seeing, interacting,
she dreams about vividly, and depicts individu- and representing glaciers – all key goals of femin-
als’ and communities’ psychological ist glaciology.

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18 Progress in Human Geography

VII Conclusions ‘armchair glaciology’ (Davenport et al., 2015;


Ice is not just ice. The dominant way Western Gertner, 2015). Unlike past narratives, there are
societies understand it through the science of subtleties and tensions within these public dis-
glaciology is not a neutral representation of courses, especially as they often seek to see sci-
nature. The feminist glaciology framework entific work in more detail, a detail that can
draws attention to those who dominate and soften or undercut the individual exertions on
frame the production of glaciological knowl- display. However, they still privilege stereotypical
edge, the gendered discourses of science and and masculinist practices of glaciology. Other
knowledge, and the ways in which colonial, mil- narratives, however, challenge these practices,
itary, and geopolitical domination co-constitute thereby generating alternative approaches to ice.
glaciological knowledge. Even in a globalized Emerging from Australia, the Homeward Bound
age where the place of women and indigenous initiative plans a ‘state of the art leadership and
people has improved markedly in some parts of strategic program for 78 women in science from
the world, masculinist discourses continue to around the globe’ to travel to Antarctica in late
dominate, in subtle and determinative ways. 2016, one of its aims being to ‘explore how
Feminist glaciology advocates for a shift of women at the leadership table might give us a
preoccupations in research, policy, and public more sustainable future’ (Homeward Bound,
perceptions from the physical and seemingly nat- 2015).
ural, to a broader consideration of ‘cryoscapes’, The call for a feminist glaciology is not lim-
the human, and the insights and potentials of ited to ice and glaciers, but is a larger interven-
alternative ice narratives and folk glaciologies. tion into global environmental change (and
The critique and framework outlined here especially climate change) research and policy.
illuminate experiences and narratives that As international negotiations remain stalled
emerged historically but remain potent today. and governmental commitments to change and
Public discourse on the cryosphere continues reform are fitful and seemingly ineffectual,
to privilege, quite explicitly, manly endeavours those studying environmental change and aware
and adventures in the field, and those who con- of its significant effects and dangerous poten-
duct their science in the manner of masculinist tials continue to search for ways of stemming
glaciologists and other field scientists of the tides of change as well as forming just and
decades and centuries past. A new documentary equitable global structures for addressing it. The
by French filmmaker Luc Jacquet (2015) about feminist glaciology framework articulates with
the preeminent French glaciologist and geoche- these larger quests in at least two ways. First,
mist Claude Lorius perpetuates narratives of it repeats the demands for increased presence
heroic domination of nature, while, in interest- of humanities and social science perspectives
ing ways, noting that ‘triumphant man’ is in global environmental change research,
responsible for the global problems that make policy, and broader public discourse. Many
Lorius’ research so necessary. At the same time, humanities and social science disciplines and
in the midst of extensive coverage of the polar sub-disciplines have given significant attention
regions in the context of climate change, the to these issues, but there remain boundaries
New York Times has published articles that between these analyses and those considered
foreground the dangerous field in Greenland, central to the environmental change question.
thereby validating manly, heroic fieldwork The natural sciences that drive and undergird
while simultaneously relegating work with environmental change policy are often asked
models and computers to something like by decision-makers and the media to speak for
society or frame research and policy questions

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Carey et al. 19

for humanity. But the natural sciences are not our gender relations, and our international politi-
equipped to understand the complexities and cal economic relations more justly and equitably.
potentialities of human societies, or to recog-
nize the ways in which science and knowledge Declaration of Conflicting Interests
have historically been linked to imperial and The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of inter-
hegemonic capitalist agendas. Feminist gla- est with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
ciology participates in this broader movement publication of this article.
by suggesting richer conceptions of human-
environment relations, and highlighting the Funding
disempowering and forestalling qualities of The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following
an unexamined and totalizing science. financial support for the research, authorship, and/
Second, we reiterate the need not only to or publication of this article: This work is based upon
appreciate the differential impacts of environ- work supported by the US National Science Founda-
mental change on different groups of people – tion under grant #1253779. Thanks to the Geography
men and women, rich and poor, North and Colloquium Series at Ohio State University for valu-
South – but to understand how the science that able input on this project.
guides attempted solutions may in fact perpetu-
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Terrall M (1998) Heroic narratives of quest and discovery. Research Fellow investigating glacier-society rela-
Configurations 6: 223–242. tionships in Iceland.
Terry G (2009) No climate justice without gender justice:
An overview of the issues. Gender and Development Alessandro Antonello is a postdoctoral research fel-
17: 5–18. low at the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark
Turchetti S, Naylor S, Dean K and Siegert M (2008) On Honors College. An environmental historian, his
thick ice: Scientific internationalism and Antarctic research investigates the history of environmental
affairs, 1957–1980. History and Technology 24: protection and management, science, geopolitics,
351–376. and ice in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
Ueda HT and Talalay PG (2007) Fifty Years of Soviet and
Russian Drilling Activity in Polar and Non-Polar Ice: A Jaclyn Rushing graduated from the University of
Chronological History. Hanover, NH: US Army Corps Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College with
of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering a BA in Environmental Studies and Romance
Laboratory. Languages. Currently, she is pursuing a MS in
Wertheim M (2005) Young women get serious in a labora- Forestry at Oregon State University. Her research
tory of ice. The New York Times, 8 March. Available at: interests include human dimensions of natural
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/science/earth/ resources and outdoor recreation.

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