Career
Susie Pottier has a doctorate in social and cultural anthropology. Before joining the Space Chair, she was a research associate at the University of Western Australia (2023-2024). Her research focuses on the mechanisms that lead humans to produce social structures, cultural norms and collective behaviours in extreme environments, particularly in Antarctica and in space, and on the links between humans and non-humans in these environments.
As part of the Space Chair, she studies how experience of hostile environments can inform sustainable practices for space exploration and the preservation of the planet. Her work examines the impact of space technologies, particularly Earth observation, on the management of climate change. It also questions the way in which different cultural conceptions influence the perception of ‘space nature’ and the definition of the elements that make it up. By integrating cultural, technological and ecological dimensions, this project explores the interactions between humans and non-humans in space and their implications for the adaptation of societies to global environmental transformations.
Recent publications
– Pottier, S. (2024). Exchanged time in shared isolation: circulation of debt in Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 36(6), 500-513.
– Pottier, S. (2022). Multiple identities of an Antarctic station through the appropriation of the inhabited space. The Polar Journal, 1-21.
Communications
– Anthropology’s Lens on Health and Well-being in Isolated and Confined Extreme Environments: Insights from Antarctica and Beyond, SCAR Open Science Conference 2024 “Antarctic Science: Crossroads for a New Hope”, Pucón (Chile), August 2024.
– “Monographs Are Outdated?”: Bridging Past and Future Through the Exploration of New Methodological Frontiers and Anthropological Paradigm Shifts in Antarctica, SCAR Open Science Conference 2024 “Antarctic Science: Crossroads for a New Hope”, Pucón (Chile), August 2024.
– “Un hivernage dure trois ans” : Pensées d’hivernants et approche réflexive sur le temps antarctique, Workshop “Habiter les stations antarctiques françaises ? Approches croisées de sciences sociales”, projet ANR SciOUTPOST, Paris (France), May 2024.
– Life in Antarctica. Anthropology of the White Continent, Anthropology Society of UWA, The University of Western Australia, September 2023.
