Join the Animal Turn Research Cluster for an upcoming talk by English Professor Gillen Wood entitled, 'Brooch Clams & Hairy Mussels: Victorian Origins of the Ocean Crisis' on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 4 PM in the Gregory Hall 307.
Abstract: This lecture recreates the visit of HMS Challenger, the pioneering oceanographic expedition, to Sydney Harbour in 1874. In colonial Australia, the Challenger naturalists encountered the molluscan legacies of recently displaced First Nation peoples, and an estuarine ecology already seriously damaged by oyster harvesting. Victorian-era Sydney offers a case study in early industrial marine exploitation and also “shifting baseline syndrome,” where lost species and their habitats are rapidly erased from cultural memory. Only recovered consciousness of these losses can open the possibility for real-world, biophysical restoration.