College: Selwyn
Supervisor: Richard Staley and Simon Schaffer (advisor)
Thesis topic: The visualisation and investigation of the aurora borealis during the International Polar and Geophysical years (1880-1960).
Research interests: History of atmospheric physics; Polar history; Visual history; Histories of International co-operation.
Teaching (2021/22)
- HPS Part II Paper 2 - Physical Sciences, Empire and Modernity
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Fiona Amery, ‘Capturing the Northern Lights: Standardising the Practice of Auroral Photography During the Second International Polar Year, 1932-1933’, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 2, no. 52 (2022).
Fiona Amery, ‘The disputed sound of the aurora borealis: sensing liminal noise during the First and Second International Polar Years, 1882-3 and 1932-3’, Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (2021).
Fiona Amery, '"An attempt to trace illusions to their physical causes": atmospheric mirages and the performance of their demystification in the 1820s and 1830s', The British Journal for the History of Science, 53:4 (2020): 443-467.
Fiona Amery, 'Thomas Baldwin and the Creation of the Hot Air Balloon as a Scientific and Aesthetic Site of Knowledge in the Late Eighteenth Century', Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (2020): 1-16.
Selected Conference/Invited Presentations
'What is left unsaid within images of the aurora borealis? The use of linguistic strategies in deciphering the ‘Flaming Letters on the Dark Vault of Night’ in the First International Polar Year (1882-3)', SPRI Polar Humanities and Social Sciences workshop series - Oct 2021.
''No pencil can draw it, no colours can paint it, and no words can describe it': The Aurora Borealis as an Uncapturable Phenomenon in the First International Polar Year, 1882-3', AHRC International Conference - Across Distance - Sept 2021.
‘The Altitude of the Aurora Borealis: Parallax Photography in the Second International Polar Year, 1932-1933’, Launching the Atmospheric Humanities: International Commission on the History of Meteorology.
‘The Sound of the Aurora Borealis: Discussion and Controversy in the First and Second International Polar Years’, Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) Annual Conference, University of Alberta.
'Capturing the Northern Lights: The Standardisation of Auroral Photography during the Second International Polar Year, 1932–1933', History of science seminar, Humboldt University, Berlin (invited) - April 2021.
'Colour Perception and Audibility: Sensing the Aurora Borealis During the Second International Polar Year, 1932-1933.', British Society for the History of Science Postgraduate Conference 2021, University of Leeds (online) - April 2021.
'Colour Perception and Audibility: Sensing the Aurora Borealis During the Second International Polar Year, 1932-1933', The 9th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS): Visual, Material and Sensory Cultures of Science Conference, University of Bologna (online) - September 2020.
Awards
- 6th Annual Royal Society Notes and Records Essay Award (2021)
- Cambridge Trust Vice-Chancellor's & Selwyn Littlefield Scholarship (2019-)
- Santander & University of California, Berkeley Scholarship (2017)
- Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Dissertation Prize (2020)
Outreach
- ‘Do the northern lights make sounds that you can hear?’, The Conversation (August 2021)
- ‘The people who claim to hear the Northern Lights’, BBC Future Article, 4th October 2021
- BBC Radio 4 The World at One Interview, 5th October 2021
