POSTPONED! University of Galway History Research Seminar: Finding Sophie: Tracing and Returning a Greenlandic Woman through the Archives of Exploration

POSTPONED!

University of Galway History Research Seminar

Finding Sophie:

‘Tracing and Returning a Greenlandic Woman through the Archives of Exploration’

Dr Eavan O’Dochartaigh (University of Galway)

Abstract
In the mid-nineteenth century, ships of ‘exploration’ made their way along Greenland’s west coast, often stopping to rest, re-supply, and trade at settlements before entering the Northwest Passage. The visits were a welcome respite for ships’ crews before wintering in the High Arctic and the social interaction that often accompanied the stops was a significant part of expedition life, indicating an Arctic that could be warm and sociable in sharp contrast to the ‘sublime’ Arctic that is commonly associated with exploration during the period.

This paper follows the appearance of one Indigenous woman from Qeqertarsuaq (Disko Island), known as Sophie Tabitha (1833-1902), and tracks her influence and agency through English-language textual and visual sources (from 1852 to 1885), including letters, private journals, periodicals, published narratives and documentary images. By attempting to ‘follow’ Sophie through the sources, we learn more about her family circumstances, social relations between Greenlandic women and British crews, and how the balance of power in the contact zone could be destabilised. I also discuss how contacting the museum in Sophie’s birthplace of Qeqertarsuaq is leading to fruitful outreach, knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Biography
Dr Eavan O’Dochartaigh is an Honorary Research Lecturer in the English Department at University of Galway, Ireland. From 2019 to 2021, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at Umeå University, Sweden, under the supervision of Prof. Maria Lindgren Leavenworth. She graduated in 2018 with a PhD in English from University of Galway. She formerly worked as an archaeologist and archaeological illustrator in Ireland, Iceland, and the UK. Her current research project ‘Exploring the Arctic Archive’ at University of Galway is with the mentorship of Prof. Daniel Carey and is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council’s Pathway Programme (2022-26). Her first monograph Visual Culture and Arctic Voyages, based on her PhD thesis, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022 and is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Registration

This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98396342366.

To attend via Zoom, please register at:

Registration

This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98396342366.

To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/Ezy9tXU45H

This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series.