GSD Assistant Professor publishes new article in leading international journal

Dr Elizabeth Chant, an Assistant Professor in the Global Sustainable Development department, has published a new article, co-authored with her colleague Dr Natalia Gándara Chacana (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso), that examines the depiction of natural environments in historic British travel accounts.

Appearing in the Journal of Historical Geography, Dr Chant and Dr Gándara Chacana’s article examines how British navigators in late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries represented the environments they encountered during voyages to the southeastern Pacific, and how these accounts later contributed to an overly romanticised British geographical perception of the Juan Fernández Archipelago (Chile).

Drawing on their interdisciplinary expertise across Latin American cultural studies, English literary studies, and environmental history, Dr Chant and Dr Gándara Chacana's article focuses on the contrasting geographies of Patagonia (present-day Argentina and Chile) and the Juan Fernández Islands. By analysing a canonical British voyage accounts from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century - including those documenting the expeditions of Bartholomew Sharp, William Dampier, and George Anson – Dr Chant and Dr Gándara Chacana argue that their depictions reinforced associations between temperate climates and virtue, highlighting the importance of environmental perception in shaping early modern global mobility, imperial expansion, and ideas around order and sustainability.

Dr Chant’s article adds value to our department’s mission by highlighting the historical roots of modern ideology surrounding environment, sustainability, and human–nature relationships. By showing how environmental perceptions were shaped through colonial mobility, her research exemplifies why considering historical and cultural perspectives is pivotal to understanding present-day sustainability challenges and how they continue to influence global sustainability policies and initiatives today.

The full article is available to read on ScienceDirect. Please join us in congratulating Dr Chant and Dr Gándara Chacana on this significant scholarly contribution.