2007 Stephen Murray-Smith Memorial Lecture
The Cultural Challenge of Antarctica
Lecturer: Dr Tom Griffiths
After voyaging to Antarctica in 1985, Stephen Murray-Smith urged his country to make a greater cultural investment in the continent of ice. In this fascinating lecture, Dr Tom Griffiths will take up Murray-Smith’s challenge by telling the story of his voyage and searching for our reflections in the ice. What prevents human culture from dissipating each year with the sea ice? Will strategic idealism triumph over short-term politics in ‘the last continent’? Tom Griffiths is Professor of History and Graduate Director in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, and his latest book is Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica.