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Polar Night/Midnight Sun: A history of sleep and time in the Arctic, 1800-1900

Project description

Arctic exploration through a history of sleep

The polar night and the midnight sun disordered the sleeping and eating routines of Europeans visiting the Arctic in the 19th century. The unpredictable magnetism of the North Pole hampered attempts to overcome the Arctic 'timescape' with European science tools. The new science of chronobiology demonstrates that daily sleep and wake rhythms have extensive consequences for physical and mental health. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) PNMS project will analyse bodily rhythms to provide new perspectives on the history of Arctic exploration. The project combines historical research with the insights of Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to follow the bodily rhythms of the past by observing the changing rhythms of residents in Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.

Objective

Sleep is universal to the human experience. A core element of our daily (circadian) rhythms, sleep is a biological and a cultural phenomenon. When we sleep, how we feel about sleep, and what we deem as normal varies with place and time. The new science of chronobiology is demonstrating that the daily rhythms of sleep and wake, eat and fast, have far reaching consequences for our physical and mental health. Understanding this embodied time can provide a new perspective on the everyday experience of people in the past and open up larger questions about time and society.

This interdisciplinary project takes its start in the history of time and sleep and proposes to use an analysis of embodied rhythms to provide new perspectives on the history of Arctic exploration. European visitors to the Arctic in the nineteenth century experienced it as a timeless space where the seasonal fluctuations in light quite literally turned day to night. The Polar Night and the Midnight Sun challenged the crews emotionally and physically as disordered sleeping and irregular eating threatened physical and mental health. At the same time, the unpredictable magnetism of the North Pole frustrated attempts to overcome the Arctic 'timescape' with the tools of European science.

PNMS is innovative in its subject area and its methodology. This project combines the tools of historical research with the insights of Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to attend to bodily rhythms in the past in new and exciting ways. Following Lefebvre's influential methodological lens, I propose to combine work on nineteenth century European sources with a contemporary rhythmanalysis, travelling to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle to observe the changing rhythms of residents in the bright summer and dark winter. This action brings together the insights of the history of science, environmental humanities, temporality studies, and feminist studies of emotion to gain new perspective on the Arctic landscape and its rhythms.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 283 438,80
Address
PROBLEMVEIEN 5-7
0313 Oslo
Norway

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Region
Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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