Katharine Anderson
Professor
Office: 321 Founders College
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 22026
Email: kateya@yorku.ca
Katharine is a historian of science and the environment. Her current research investigates the oceans in the inter-war period, showing how these spaces were defined, observed and imagined in the 1920s and 1930s.
Katharine Anderson teaches in the interdisciplinary Department of Humanities at York University. She is a member of the graduate programs of Humanities, History and STS at York. Her research areas of interest include scientific exploration, the history of weather and climate, science and the oceans in the early twentieth century. Her current project investigates the oceans as a site of scientific research, showing how these spaces were defined, observed and imagined in the 1920s and 1930s.
Degrees
PhD, Northwestern UniversityMA, University of Massachussets at Amherst
BA, McGill University
Professional Leadership
Co-editor, Oceans in Depth, University of Chicago Press (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/series/OCEDEP.html)
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
material culture; gravitational measurement; geophysical prospecting; scientific instruments; research methods
Description:In this research, I consider the place of artefact study as a link between past and present practices in the sciences, and as a link between different kinds of pedagogical practice and students.
Publications related to this project include:
K. Anderson, M. Frappier, E. Neswald, H. Trim, "Reading Instruments: Objects, Texts and Museums" Science and Education 22 (2013) 1167–1189. a collaborative case study of the Eotvos Gravimeter used at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa in the late 1920s and 1930s by A.H. Miller (1886-1992) and the later life of the instrument in the Canadian Science and Technology Museum.
K. Anderson, "An ‘experimental’ instrument: testing the torsion balance in the Empire" (under review).
“Beyond the Glass Cabinet: The History of Scientific Instruments” in Revista Electrónica de Fuentes y Archivos del Centro de Estudios Históricos. Edition Digital No 4. Dossier: Los archivos de la ciencia: Prácticas científicas, cultura material y organización del saber. Issue guest edited by Irina Podygny on current methods in history of science. 2013. http://www.refa.org.ar/
“Coral Jewellery/ Victorian Things: A Forum on Material Objects,” Victorian Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies 34 (2008) 47-52.
Collaborator: Elisabeth Neswald (Brock), Melanie Frappier (Dalhousie), Henry Trim (UBC), Jan Hadlaw (AMPD, York)
-
Summary:
This historical project explores how the Atlantic ocean was defined, observed and imagined in the 1920s and 1930s.
Description:In this era, the wider context for marine scientific work included the political and economic world order after World War One, the rise of internationalism, and the popular audiences for science writing. Like other studies in the history of ecology and the environment, this project investigates how ideas about natural worlds – here, watery ones – shaped and were shaped by modern cultural and political life.
-
Summary:
Annotated edition with a critical introduction of the 1839 Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS Adventure and HMS Beagle. 4 vols. by Philip Parker King and Robert Fitzroy (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2011).
Studies of the voyage narrative as a genre of scientific publication in the nineteenth century.
Description:HMS Beagle has entered the collective imagination as the ship that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos, triggering his later work on the theory of natural selection. However, the Beagle also played a vital role in the development of modern hydrography, cartography and meteorology in both the voyage of 1831-36 and an earlier one of 1826-29 in an expedition led by Phillip Parker King in the Adventure. The work of the Beagle under her captain, Robert FitzRoy, was to chart South American coastlines, many of which had not previously been mapped, and to build a global chain of meridian distances. On this voyage FitzRoy pioneered the use of Francis Beaufort’s new system for identifying wind force, the basis of the modern Beaufort scale. FitzRoy’s further, unofficial goal on this voyage was to return three Fuegians to their native shores, and establish a Protestant mission in the desolate, southern fringes of the continent. It was a pivotal experience of civilization and savagery for both Darwin and FitzRoy. The separate accounts of the voyages by King, FitzRoy and Darwin were published in the four-volume Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle Between the Years 1826 and 1836 (1839). Darwin’s volume has never been out of print. In contrast, this set presents the first critical edition of the remaining texts from 1839: FitzRoy’s account of the second voyage, his detailed appendices, and the account of the 1826-29 voyage authored by Phillip Parker King, captain of HMS Adventure. Together they give an unparalleled example of British scientific exploration. It will generate new scholarly approaches to the Beagle voyages and be crucial for those interested in Darwin, Maritime Studies, History of Science, and Empire. test
In addition to this annotated edition, the publications related to the study of the scientific voyage narrative as a genre include:
“Natural History and the Scientific Voyage” in Helen Anne Curry, Nick Jardine, James Secord, Emma Spary, eds. Worlds of Natural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
“The Hydrographer’s Narrative: Writing Global knowledge in the 1830s,” Journal of Historical Geography (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2018.09.002).
“Reading and Writing the Scientific Voyage: Robert FitzRoy, Charles Darwin and John Clunies Ross,” British Journal for the History of Science (August 2018 First View at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S000708741800050X)
Approach to Teaching
On leave fall 2026.
Katharine is a historian of science and the environment. Her current research investigates the oceans in the inter-war period, showing how these spaces were defined, observed and imagined in the 1920s and 1930s.
Katharine Anderson teaches in the interdisciplinary Department of Humanities at York University. She is a member of the graduate programs of Humanities, History and STS at York. Her research areas of interest include scientific exploration, the history of weather and climate, science and the oceans in the early twentieth century. Her current project investigates the oceans as a site of scientific research, showing how these spaces were defined, observed and imagined in the 1920s and 1930s.
Degrees
PhD, Northwestern UniversityMA, University of Massachussets at Amherst
BA, McGill University
Professional Leadership
Co-editor, Oceans in Depth, University of Chicago Press (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/series/OCEDEP.html)
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
material culture; gravitational measurement; geophysical prospecting; scientific instruments; research methods
Description:In this research, I consider the place of artefact study as a link between past and present practices in the sciences, and as a link between different kinds of pedagogical practice and students.
Publications related to this project include:
K. Anderson, M. Frappier, E. Neswald, H. Trim, "Reading Instruments: Objects, Texts and Museums" Science and Education 22 (2013) 1167–1189. a collaborative case study of the Eotvos Gravimeter used at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa in the late 1920s and 1930s by A.H. Miller (1886-1992) and the later life of the instrument in the Canadian Science and Technology Museum.
K. Anderson, "An ‘experimental’ instrument: testing the torsion balance in the Empire" (under review).
“Beyond the Glass Cabinet: The History of Scientific Instruments” in Revista Electrónica de Fuentes y Archivos del Centro de Estudios Históricos. Edition Digital No 4. Dossier: Los archivos de la ciencia: Prácticas científicas, cultura material y organización del saber. Issue guest edited by Irina Podygny on current methods in history of science. 2013. http://www.refa.org.ar/
“Coral Jewellery/ Victorian Things: A Forum on Material Objects,” Victorian Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies 34 (2008) 47-52.
Project Type: Self-FundedRole: collaborator; author
Collaborator: Elisabeth Neswald (Brock), Melanie Frappier (Dalhousie), Henry Trim (UBC), Jan Hadlaw (AMPD, York)
-
Summary:
This historical project explores how the Atlantic ocean was defined, observed and imagined in the 1920s and 1930s.
Description:In this era, the wider context for marine scientific work included the political and economic world order after World War One, the rise of internationalism, and the popular audiences for science writing. Like other studies in the history of ecology and the environment, this project investigates how ideas about natural worlds – here, watery ones – shaped and were shaped by modern cultural and political life.
Project Type: FundedRole: PI
-
Summary:
Annotated edition with a critical introduction of the 1839 Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of HMS Adventure and HMS Beagle. 4 vols. by Philip Parker King and Robert Fitzroy (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2011).
Studies of the voyage narrative as a genre of scientific publication in the nineteenth century.
Description:HMS Beagle has entered the collective imagination as the ship that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos, triggering his later work on the theory of natural selection. However, the Beagle also played a vital role in the development of modern hydrography, cartography and meteorology in both the voyage of 1831-36 and an earlier one of 1826-29 in an expedition led by Phillip Parker King in the Adventure. The work of the Beagle under her captain, Robert FitzRoy, was to chart South American coastlines, many of which had not previously been mapped, and to build a global chain of meridian distances. On this voyage FitzRoy pioneered the use of Francis Beaufort’s new system for identifying wind force, the basis of the modern Beaufort scale. FitzRoy’s further, unofficial goal on this voyage was to return three Fuegians to their native shores, and establish a Protestant mission in the desolate, southern fringes of the continent. It was a pivotal experience of civilization and savagery for both Darwin and FitzRoy. The separate accounts of the voyages by King, FitzRoy and Darwin were published in the four-volume Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle Between the Years 1826 and 1836 (1839). Darwin’s volume has never been out of print. In contrast, this set presents the first critical edition of the remaining texts from 1839: FitzRoy’s account of the second voyage, his detailed appendices, and the account of the 1826-29 voyage authored by Phillip Parker King, captain of HMS Adventure. Together they give an unparalleled example of British scientific exploration. It will generate new scholarly approaches to the Beagle voyages and be crucial for those interested in Darwin, Maritime Studies, History of Science, and Empire. test
In addition to this annotated edition, the publications related to the study of the scientific voyage narrative as a genre include:
“Natural History and the Scientific Voyage” in Helen Anne Curry, Nick Jardine, James Secord, Emma Spary, eds. Worlds of Natural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
“The Hydrographer’s Narrative: Writing Global knowledge in the 1830s,” Journal of Historical Geography (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2018.09.002).
“Reading and Writing the Scientific Voyage: Robert FitzRoy, Charles Darwin and John Clunies Ross,” British Journal for the History of Science (August 2018 First View at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S000708741800050X)
Project Type: Self-FundedRole: Editor
Approach to Teaching
On leave fall 2026.
