In the Wake of Dead Ice: Glacial Remains in Iceland

This research project examines the sociocultural impacts of glacial extinction in Iceland. As climate change intensifies ice thaw in Arctic regions, Icelandic communities face the devastating loss of culturally and ecologically significant glacial landscapes. Glaciers hold distinct environmental and cultural value, functioning as watersheds, recreational areas, tourist attractions, and sites widely storied in Icelandic folklore, art, and literature. However, scientists predict all of Iceland's glaciers could be gone by 2200 (Poore et al., 2011), threatening not only fragile ecologies, but communities with cultural and historic ties to glacial places. Utilizing qualitative mixed methods, this research project examines how communities bordering two recently extinct glacial areas in Iceland, Snæfellsjökull and Okjökull, have responded to the loss of significant glacial landscapes, paying particular attention to how communities understand, process, and organize around ecological grief-emotional and psychological distress caused by environmental degradation. While diverse scholarship has paid attention to the ecological significance of melting glaciers in Iceland and beyond, few scholars have investigated the affective consequences and remains of glacial extinction. Recent attention to the proliferation of climate anxiety and ecological grief, however, has highlighted the significant emotional and psychological distress caused by environmental degradation, especially for those with social and cultural attachments to particular landscapes. Ultimately, this research offers a novel account of how widespread ice loss might impact shared histories, temporalities, knowledges, and ways of
life, bridging work in the environmental humanities and cultural geography. Further, this project examines how ecological grief and mourning might be used to inspire collective climate action.
Plans to undertake fieldwork in Iceland, which will require learning basic Icelandic language skills.