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Doctoral Dissertation Research Proposal: Geographic Representations of the Planet Mars, 1867-1907

Dissertation writing help on Geographic Representations of the Planet Mars

Area: Historical Analysis of Archival and Published Materials

Graduate Program: Geography

This dissertation research will use interpretive and archival methods to analyze geographical representations of the planet Mars produced by Western astronomers and science writers in the late nineteenth century. Specifically, this project may investigate the ways in which the development of texts and cartography portraying Mars between 1867 and 1907 participated in wider ideological discourses concerning science, modernity and imperialism. The working hypothesis is that shows of Mars' geography not only reflected the social contexts of sponsored observatories, astronomical societies, and the larger Western scientific communities during the use of common textual tropes and cartographic conventions; but that they also served to construct or modify these very contexts. The proposed research will investigate the extent to which historical geographies of altered dominant or Mars challenged discourses of modern Western superiority by representing the planet as a landscape inhabited by beings with organizational skills and superior engineering.

This inquiry may be conducted during archival investigation of three specific conflicts in the representation of Mars that marked turning points in the planet's astronomy: over (1) the nomenclature assigned to its geographical features, (2) the mapping of canals on its surface, and (3) the interpretation of such canals as the work of intelligent beings. Interpretive analysis of archival materials - adding astronomers' original maps, sketches, observation logbooks, manuscripts, correspondence and lectures; popular media coverage of astronomers' findings; and documents and contemporaneous maps produced for imperial and other purposes - will focus on reconstructing the social, historical and cultural contexts in which astronomers worked, while also establishing the extent to which discourses of Mars' geography infiltrated other scientific, popular dialogues, imperial during the same time period. Analysis may be guided by the hypothesis stated above, but will remain open to other scientific-cultural explanations for the nature and meaning of what show today to be rather curious and remarkable geographies of the Martian landscape. By focusing on texts and maps that are relatively unknown to scholars outside the history of astronomy, this research may contribute materially and theoretically to the history of cartography, science studies, historical geography and studies of colonialism.

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