UC Antarctic researcher wins Winston Churchill Fellowship

UC Antarctic researcher wins Winston Churchill Fellowship

A University of Canterbury Antarctic researcher has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to help her study other countries’ Antarctic histories.

Polar historian and Adjunct Fellow of UC’s Gateway Antarctica, Dr Ursula Rack will use her Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship next year to travel to the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany to investigate the preservation of their Antarctic histories and identify practices that may be useful in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“Aotearoa New Zealand has a diverse and rich history associated with Antarctica. To enhance the recording and telling of this important part of our history I wish to investigate how other nations have undertaken their Antarctic histories through oral histories, articles, documentaries, museums and books,” Dr Rack says.

The title of Dr Rack’s project is ‘Frozen History: Researching, Recording and Communicating Antarctic History’. Thanks to the fellowship she will travel to Washington, Ohio, in the US, Bremerhaven, Germany, and Cambridge and London, UK, to investigate their methods in March and April 2018.
“I plan to examine what lessons can be utilised from their experience to save our historical legacy.”

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowships, administered by the Department of Internal Affairs, help New Zealanders to travel overseas to learn from others and study topics that will be of personal benefit, help them advance their occupation, trade, industry, profession or community and New Zealand in general. Fellows return to New Zealand with new knowledge, skills, inspiration and networks to share and support development in their field.

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was created by legislation in 1965 as a living memorial, with funds from both the New Zealand Government and the public.

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