Professor Gillen Wood recreates the HMS Challenger's pioneering oceanographic expedition to colonial Australia in 1874. Victorian-era Sydney Harbor offers a case study in early industrial marine exploitation and “shifting baseline syndrome,” where lost species and their habitats are erased from cultural memory. Only recovered consciousness of these losses can open the possibility for real-world, biophysical restoration.
Humanities Research Institute
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Levis Faculty Center, Suite 400
919 W Illinois St. MC 057
Urbana, IL 61801
Contact: info-HRI@illinois.edu