Heading South

Well, once again I have been fortunate enough to get myself a trip Southward. In two days time (early Wednesday morning), Stephen will drop me off at Antarctica New Zealand and I will climb aboard a huge plane to emerge into spacious whiteness. This time I am travelling to Antarctica as a research assistant to my supervisor on his research examining the behaviour of scientists in the field. Focusing especially on the choices they make that relate to environment sustenance or degradation.

During my time in Antarctica I will be maintaining a blog for Science Alive, a local Christchurch science centre. This means I will probably not post much on here, but you are more than welcome to follow my adventures while on the ice at http://psychologyinantarctica.blogspot.com/

Research

I suppose, with the brief exception of sharing my office space, I have avoided the whole topic of school up to this point. We have been here in New Zealand for 5 1/2 months now and I'm approaching my first deadline; the submission of my proposal. And I've also presented my work at my first conference, the Antarctica New Zealand conference held this year in Auckland. So I figured I should take a moment and share with you all what I'm actually doing here (besides taking in stray cats, shopping at markets, and being cold).

I am studying at Gateway Antarctica, the Antarctic research centre associated with the University of Canterbury (http://www.anta.canterbury.ac.nz/). We fall under the Faculty of Science and are located in the geography building, but Gateway is a seperate entity that has links to pretty much all the faculties at the university. If someone is studying anything to do with "the ice" (that's what New Zealanders call Antarctica) they come through Gateway. The people at the office are absolutely wonderful and I'm pretty sure we have the most worldly faculty (not one of them is from New Zealand ironically). My superviser at the uni is Bryan Storey, the director of Gateway and a geologist, he pretty much guides the paperwork aspect of the project and keeps an eye on me (from Ireland). Gary Steel, my other supervisor, actually works out at Lincoln University (on the outskirts of Christchurch - they have a very strong agricultural focus) but is an adjunct faculty at U of C and is an environmental psychologist (and from Prince George). Others at the office include an Austrian couple (Wolfgang and Ursula), an american (Michelle), a welshman (Irfon) and an east german (Daniella). Lunchtime is always great with conversations ranging from Micheal Jackson's funeral and the newest movies to East German space technology and the intricacies of rugby. But once again, I'm changing topic.

My main underlying question is "How does 'sense of place' develope in remote and extreme environments?" Sense of place is an intriguing topic to me, as it explores the connections, meanings and values we place on the space we inhabit. There has been lots of work done on how sense of place developes in and around where people live (eg. home, neighbourhood, city, etc.), but there has been little to no work done on how we project meaning onto places (or spaces) we have not been. Antarctica intrigues me as well due to its common associtation with tabula rasa (which means 'blank slate'), with relatively recent human physical presence, it plays host to a newly developing culture based mostly on science.

The poster is the one I presented recently at the Auckland conference. It won the 1st prize for student posters. A thrilling result for my first foray into the research community here.

But now, I'm off to the pub.

University of Canterbury

The bike ride to school in the morning takes me through Hagley Park - a nice place in the morning with the mist rising off the golfcourse and the sun shining gold in the windows.

This is my office space at school. I share a room with three other desks, two of which are actually occupied and only one person who is here now.

As you can see biking to school here is a popular mode of transportation, especially since the city is mostly flat (but very, very windy).

The library, where I have been lots.

The architecture is reminiscent of that found at UVic, probably both built in the 60s.

The pathway between the student association (UCSA) building and the rest of campus. There's a small river cutting through the campus, which adds a nice quality of being 'green' to the whole affaire.

And finally, the ride home takes me back through downtown Christchurch, along the trolley tracks, which looks like this.

Hope you're all doing well.
Cheers,
Erin

Down to Work

Today is my second day at my new "job" for the next 3-4 years of my life. I have a nice desk with a window above it that looks out into a shady square. I can hear the birds singing on colder days and the cicadas chirping on the hot days. I share my office right now with two other PhD students, one who is just finishing up her dissertation on pond chemistry (in Antarctica) and the other who is currently in Washington doing field work (I'm not sure on what though). My bookshelf is slowly filling with things to read, but right now I'm simply waiting to meet my supervisor, Gary. Everyone seems very nice and they have been very welcoming into their space. I'm looking forward to working here.

Stephen is on his second day of classes as well. He's successfully transferred from Physics and Math to Physics and Chemistry, and will be busy in classes for the next five weeks until his first placement in a local school. He's also taking a Maori Education course, which is mandatory here, that teaches Maori language, culture and traditions to teachers to ensure culturally sensitive people are going into the classrooms. A wonderful tool I think for all institutions to think about.

Hope you're all doing well. Our home phone and internet should be up next week, so I will have some pictures up then.

Cheers,
Erin