Christian Drury

Published book🥳Janicke Kaasa, Ulrike Spring and I edited the volume Collecting the North in @degruyterbrill.bsky.social series Arctic Humanities. It examines natural and human-made objects from 18th-20th century, their relationship to Nordic countries and European Arctic. brill.com/display/titl... 🧪

Cricket and the India-Pakistan Rivalry

@karachikhatmal.bsky.social joins to talk CRICKET, including the sport's colonial history and recent events in the world's most heated rivalry.

We had A LOT of fun with this one, with something for novices and experts alike.

open.spotify.com/episode/3SZ4...

Arctic Fever: new exhibit finds 19th-century parallels to Trump’s Greenland obsession As far back as 1867, White House officials have viewed Greenland, and Iceland, as having immense strategic value

This looks ace!

"As the focus intensifies once more on the Arctic, it’s important to remember there isn’t one history, there are many histories. People have long moved in all directions, from all places."

Congrats @issygapp.bsky.social and #MarkCheetham!

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

The walls of Katsema, Nigeria, 1930. Photo by Elizabeth Wilhelmina Ness/Royal Geographical Society

So pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded PhD opportunity co-supervised with Royal Geographical Society (with IBG):

"Collaborative Research as Pedagogical Method: Reinterpreting Photographic Collections at the RGS-IBG"

Deadline: 30 April. Full details here: lnkd.in/euQvMmrR

Isabelle Gapp, A Circumpolar Landscape: Art and Environment in Scandinavia and North America, 1890-1930. Cover of book with northern lights over arctic scene on right.

Our 1st #envhum #book talk of 2026 is on Monday, 19 Jan, 16:00 CET/15:00 GMT.
Join us to hear Isabelle Gapp @issygapp.bsky.social discuss her book A Circumpolar Landscape: Art and Environment in Scandinavia and North America, 1890-1930.
All are welcome!
newnatures.org/greenhouse/e...

‘Are they going to bring their violence here?’: Fear – but little preparation – as threat of invasion looms over Greenland Ahead of high-stakes talks, people tell of alarm, thoughts of fleeing and lack of information on what to do if US invades

"For most of its residents, this is not a talking point or a piece of content from which they can move on or swipe away. It is existential": www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Thanks Ewan!

The abstract of an article titled "'The land of the glorious fjords... is so easily accessible': Infrastructure and Identity in Travel Guides to Norway, 1870-1920". The abstract reads: As Norway became an increasingly popular destination in the latter half of the nineteenth century, British travellers turned to guidebooks to structure their travel. Guidebooks to Norway were published in international series by John Murray, Thomas Cook and Baedeker, but also by local travel agents such as Thomas Bennett. Norway seemed to offer an escape from the urban and industrial, yet travellers relied on modern networks of transport and infrastructure. The 1916 guide, Sunlit Norway, was published by the Bergen Steamship Line and the Norwegian State Railways. Visual and textual depictions of infrastructure are prominent and this involvement of transport companies also suggests that the use of certain forms of infrastructure was not simply assumed but actively encouraged. Considering guidebooks as a form of travel writing shows how this travel was fundamentally transnational and highlights the involvement of local people in tourist practices. The presence or absence - of local people in travel guides provides insight into the impact of tourism on local communities. It also complicates the representations of Norway found in travelogues and travel guides in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reemphasising the modern and alternative ideas of the nation.

I have a new article out in the Journal of Tourism History, looking at how travel guides, infrastructure and photography shaped tourism in Norway. What and who did travel guides depict, in text and photographs, and how? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This year's Borders and Crossings conference - "New Francophone and Anglophone cross-perspectives on travel writing" - is in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in September (which sounds very pleasant). CfP deadline: 15th February www.crlv.org/actualites/a...

A view across a road to buildings with blue sky and a winter daytime moon beyond

Winter afternoon in Oxford

The cover of Hans Christian Erlandsen's KALDE KYSTER, UKJENT LAND: DEN NORSKE POLARHISTORIEN, with a black and white photograph of an icy landscape with a Lone figure facing away from the camera

Merry Christmas! 🎄 This year's very on-brand present:

people get really, really weird about jofra archer's gold chain. why does a piece of jewellery get them so rattled?

a material culture analysis via gold chains in hip-hop style 👇

daisycutterzine.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/i...

A New Mountains Podcast: 'Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures' | Jeremy Bassetti Listen to the new mountain podcast coming out of the University of St Andrews

Have you listened to the new mountains podcast yet? Put on by @mountainsofgreece.bsky.social @jonwestaway.bsky.social and @profpitches.bsky.social, the "Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures" podcast has published its first episode. Also, follow the podcast on Bluesky: @futuremountain.bsky.social .

Mike Selvey · Diary: Jetlagged Cricketers

In looking for something positive to read about the Ashes, I discovered this Mike Selvey piece in the LRB from 1987. The main concerns: the amount of one day cricket being played and the schedule of the County Championship... www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...

It's been a pleasure being on the great organising team at York and Northumbria for next year's NEHN meeting - a collaborative worksop on the many histories of 'unwanted life'. Do see the CFP below, and send in a submission if it appeals!

The river Wear in bright winter sun with mist over the water

A wintery Wear in Durham

This looks like a great opportunity for people interested in working with the Alpine Club collections 🏔️

Hello! Here is my critical microhistory of modern Arctic exploration. You can now pre-order a paperback copy for $32 CDN during @ubcpress.bsky.social’s winter sale. Also available in hardcover, ebook and PDF! ❄️❄️❄️

www.ubcpress.ca/a-cold-colon...

The @scottpolar.bsky.social are looking for a librarian. This is a rare opportunity! Work with (probably) the world's largest dedicated polar library alongside archive and museum colleagues. The dream 😍

📜

The front pages of William Sansom's THE ICICLE AND THE SUN (1958), including a map of Scandinavia with the sea in green and land in white

Some new (to me) Nordic travel writing: William Sansom's THE ICICLE AND THE SUN (1958)

📢Call For Papers📢
Sociability & Political life

Marc Jaffré & I are organising a conference! We're asking: can there be politics without sociability? How have friendship, intimacy, socialising & informal attachments been central to political projects & movements?

Get your abstracts in by Feb 14th!

Graphic which reads "Away From Home: The Untold Stories of Women Football Fans".

At the moment, you can visit the exhibition "Away From Home: The Untold Stories of Women Football Fans" at Maiden Castle! ⚽

Throughout history, women fans have always attended football matches. Usually, their stories get lost in the crowd, but this exhibition gives them a voice 📣

Durham Cathedral with snowy roofs in front of it

A wintery Durham from the train ❄️

A network of interconnecting green threads lit up

A field of large, colourful flower sculptures in front of the Cathedral

Lots of floating paper lanterns, lit from inside, in the Cathedral cloisters

A projection of trees against a row of houses

Some of the installations at Lumiere in Durham. A botanical feel this year - rhizomes, flowers and harvests 🍄

Academic books don't often have covers worth revealing, but this one is pretty good. Samia Ounoughi & I have been working on this for about 100 years, but we've just sent the final proofs, so here's the cover & contents. Writing on the Move, due out from Berghahn early 2026. #travelwriting studies

PhD Fellowship in Museum Education (288983) | University of Stavanger Job title: PhD Fellowship in Museum Education (288983), Employer: University of Stavanger, Deadline: Sunday, January 4, 2026

My colleague Marie-Theres Fojuth has advertised a fully funded 3-year PhD Fellowship in Museum Education @unistavanger.bsky.social with the «Into the Fjords: Blue Museums as Arenas of Learning about Vulnerable Ecosystems (FJORDS)» project. Perfect for Scandinavian-speaking #envhum #envhist people!

…part of the wider Romantic interest in the wild and sublime that you see in Gothic literature, but also in travel writing from Norway (+ the family connection).

Good question - I think most of the work on Frankenstein has looked at the polar aspects. I'm not sure if Shelley went to Scandinavia but Mary Wollstonecraft wrote one of the first major travelogues from the region. I don't know if there is a direct influence on Frankenstein, but it's certainly...

Spread the word about this brand new Masters in Public Environmental Humanities with me and The Greenhouse crew in Norway.

For those outside of EU, registration is in second half of November, so don’t miss it!

Two rowing boats going down a river lined with autumnal trees under grey cloud

Rowers on the Wear this morning