Permafrost as Metaphor and Material: A Family History of Arctic Science on the North Slope of Alaska

Katie Brewer Ball • Wesleyan University

September 23rd @ 6pm • Daniel Family Commons

On September 16, 1950, Max C. Brewer left his job with the USGS operating an electrical resistivity crew on the mesas near Grand Junction, Colorado to work on the thermal regime of permafrost in Utqiagvik (Barrow, Alaska). He went from 100 degrees in the shade to late summer snow on the ground and in the air. Director of the Arctic Research Laboratory (ARL) from 1950-1971, Brewer Ball’s grandfather Max lived and raised his family in a quonset hut in the arctic circle. They grew up with stories of polar bears and planes crash-landing onto drifting ice islands. This talk focuses on family history, arctic science, Iñupiaq knowledge systems, ice geographies, and the force of narrative.

Dead Reckonings
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