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Emma Shortis

Yale Fox International Fellow 2017-2018, Yale University; and PhD Candidate in History, The University of Melbourne
Chapter Member: Connecticut SSN
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About Emma

Shortis' research centers on the question of how major shifts in international environmental politics are achieved. Specifically, her research tackles a case study of great significance in the history of environmental protection: the abandonment of a nearly completed international agreement that would have allowed mining in the Antarctic, in favor of a new agreement guaranteeing the comprehensive environmental protection of the entire continent. Shortis is often asked to provide media commentary on historical connections to current events in the United States, tailored for an Australian audience. Shortis is a semi-regular contributor to the Australian publication Crikey.com.au, a co-founder of the history blog maintainyourrage.com, and a host of the New Books in Environmental Studies podcast. 

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

What Past Battles Can Teach Today's Activists Fighting Environmental Catastrophes

Key Findings Brief,

In the News

"History Repeating as Greenpeace Returns to the Antarctic," Emma Shortis, Greenpeace, April 19, 2018.
Guest to discuss Wild Articulations: Environmentalism and Indigeneity in Northern Australia on New Books Network, Emma Shortis (with Timothy Neale), April 2, 2018.
Guest to discuss The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560-1720 on New Books Network, Emma Shortis, February 14, 2018.
"Yale Diaries: The Role of Historians in Trump's America," Emma Shortis, Crikey, January 17, 2018.
"Yale Diaries: America's 'Credibility' is Not the Problem Here," Emma Shortis, Crikey, October 31, 2017.
"Yale Diary: Fighting Climate Change in the Elite Liberal Bubble," Emma Shortis, Crikey, October 4, 2017.

Publications

"'Who Can Resist This Guy?': Jacques Cousteau, Celebrity Diplomacy, and the Environmental Protection of the Antarctic" Australian Journal of Politics & History 61, no. 3 (2015): 366-380.

Examines Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau's U.S. campaign to save Antarctica from mining in the 1990s. Argues that Cousteau's success demonstrates the indelible impact celebrities can have on international environmental negotiations, and political developments more broadly. 

"'In the Interest of All Mankind': Women and the Environmental Protection of Antarctica" in Feminist Ecologies: Changing Environments in the Anthropocene, edited by Lara Stevens, Peta Tait, Denise Varney (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 247-261.

Highlights the major contribution of women activists to the successful campaign against Antarctic mining in the 1980s, reinstating women in the historical record.