Research

My ocean research began in the history of science, investigating precursors to the famous 19th century circumnavigation of HMS Challenger that is credited with founding the field of oceanography. Soon I recognized that I was learning about the history of the ocean itself, not its natural history, but the story of relationships between people and the ocean – including its depths as well as its surface, and encompassing even parts we rarely think of in conjunction with human activities. The projects featured here describe my own work; see “Fellow Fathomers” for collaborative projects or work by other scholars.