Antarctica Becomes Her

Publisher: Bitingduck Press

In 2016, a women-only expedition traveled to Antarctica and visited two operating research stations (Carlini, Argentina and Palmer Station, USA) as well as the abandoned Argentine/Spanish research base built on a Norwegian whaling station on Deception Island and the Port Lockroy (UK) post office. Seventy-six women, mostly research scientists, embarked on this journey, not to collect ice cores from the continent, but to essentially collect data about themselves. The intent of the journey was to culminate a year-long leadership development program in a three week expedition to build a global network of women leaders. Antarctica provided the ideal backdrop to reflect on our changing planet—a month prior, the Larson C ice shelf cracked on the opposite side of the peninsula where we journeyed. This book tells the story of these 76 women scientists.

Melissa Haeffner, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science and Management department at Portland State University. Her research unifies several research domains that contribute to the knowledge of local politics in watersheds and how they shape urban water infrastructure development in the past, in the present, and under future predictions. Her ongoing research and teaching commitments investigate water insecurity and justice within municipal water systems and the links between multi-scale policies, infrastructural and environmental conditions, and household behavior. Her work focuses on “just water” and how social, political, and biophysical factors structure access to water, using the concept of environmental justice to draw attention to issues of fairness and equality in the ways different social groups gain access to natural resources.