The Politics of International Soil Science in the Early 20th Century

This interdisciplinary project explores undiscovered connections between international soil science and politics in the first part of the 20th century and offers the first systematic investigation of the topic. The International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) is reaching its hundred-year centenary in 2024, which gives a specific relevance to this project, as well as the raising importance of understanding processes of soils in coping with global environmental crises nowadays. The project will investigate the history of the internationalization of soil science as an inherently geographical and political process, with a specific focus on the history of ISSS, the first international soil science conferences, and the agency of soil scientists. It will examine contemporary published sources and archival materials, combining methods from cultural and historical geography, history of science and environmental history. By doing so, it aims to examine the translations and circulation of internationally accepted methods of the investigation and mapping of soils, highlighting how national scientific agendas and agricultural development projects were deeply embedded in colonial and statebuilding politics. The project aims to reflect on the paradoxical situation that the internationalization of soil science, which was purportedly built on an apolitical scientific understanding of soil, coincided with deep divisions of European and global politics, struggles for land and often, the politicization of soil. The unique combination of my mentor's, Prof. Michael Heffernan's expertise in history of geography and internationalism, and my own interdisciplinary knowledge in historical human-environment interactions and soil science will bring new approaches to the interface of the history of international science, politics and global environmental history. Completing this project will also provide me a launchpad to a successful and stable career in academia.