Connecting the blue humanities and the ocean sciences

Funding Year: 2023

Research Areas: Oceans

Over the past twenty years, Margaret Cohen, professor of English, has helped define an emerging field known as the blue or oceanic humanities. The new discipline explores human connections to the sea expressed through cultural constructs like the arts, literature, and maritime history. This project will define the guiding principles for pursuing research at the intersection of the blue humanities and ocean sciences both within the Oceans Department and beyond Stanford at partner institutions. Through a series of workshops, collaborative writing, and partner discussions, the team will examine scientific and cultural research on the sea to articulate how and where these distinct disciplines overlap. They hope this work will raise awareness about the blue humanities, open new directions of scholarship that bring together the environmental humanities and sciences, and encourage public engagement in reimagining our relationship to the oceans.

Learn more about the Big Ideas for Oceans grant program and other funded projects.

Principal Investigators:

Margaret Cohen (English)

Fiorenza Micheli (Oceans)

Steve Palumbi (Oceans, Biology)

Meghan Shea (Oceans)

Alexander Sherman (English)