![Dr Isabelle Gapp Dr Isabelle Gapp](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/s01ig3/avatar/jmB4hZFSgwsr8Imf1EPrvi3vWgzwxJtBHABYJIWO.jpeg)
Interdisciplinary Fellow
- About
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- Email Address
- isabelle.gapp@abdn.ac.uk
- School/Department
- School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History
Biography
Isabelle is an Interdisciplinary Fellow in the Department of Art History and associated with the Environment and Biodiversity Challenge Area.
She is a specialist in landscape and environmental art history from around the Circumpolar North and from 1800 to the present day. Her current research looks at the intersections between art and glaciology in the study of historic and contemporary printmaking, photography, and drawing made by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists in the North American Arctic.
Prior to joining Aberdeen, Isabelle was an Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD from the University of York in 2019.
Isabelle is the PI for the British Academy funded project From the Floe Edge, in collaboration with Dr Sarah Cooley (Duke University) and the West Baffin Co-operative in Kinngait, Nunavut. She is also the co-lead for the Teaching Arctic Environments project with Dr Jonathan Peyton at the University of Manitoba, and in collaboration with Dr Nadine Fabbi at the University of Washington and Dr Penny How at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
Isabelle is an Editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), where she also convenes the Visual Cultures of the Circumpolar North series. She formally co-lead a working group under the same name through the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto (2021-24). At Aberdeen, Isabelle is affiliated with the Cryosphere and Climate Change Research Group.
To date, Isabelle is the author of one monograph (2024) and has published more than eleven single-author/co-author papers and numerous public humanities essays. She has also co-authored an additional seven papers with colleagues in the fields of art and architectural history, environmental history, geography and glaciology.
Qualifications
- MA in Art History2015 - University of Aberdeen
- MA by Research in Art History2016 - University of York
- PhD in Art History2019 - University of York
Latest Publications
Looking south:: making monuments to the British Antarctic Expedition
The Sculpture Journal, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 301Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/sj.2024.33.2.15
Landscape Paintings of the Circumpolar North: Polar Environmental Humanities Series Episode 1
Non-textual Forms: Digital or Visual ProductsA Circumpolar Landscape:: Art and Environment in Scandinavia and North America, 1890-1930
Lund Humphries. 208 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksCoastal Narratives and Baltic Ecotones: Painting Beaches and Boulders at the Water’s Edge
Coastal Studies & Society, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 33-51Contributions to Journals: ArticlesIce in Motion: Panoramic Perspectives and Moving Pictures
Arctic, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 160-178Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic77740
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/22450/1/Gapp_Ice_in_Motion.pdf
- Research
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Research Overview
My research leads with the visual material. I write about small sketches and large-scale paintings, drawings and prints, canonical and lesser-known works, many displayed or archived in collections around the Circumpolar North. I consider the material, cultural and environmental entanglements of landscape painting and environmental visual cultures through a variety of media from 1850 to the present day.
Drawn largely towards coastlines, my research moves from watercolours to photography, oil paintings, prints, graphite, charcoal and ink drawings, driftwood, and sealskin and emphasises how these distinct material processes highlight different facets of terrestrial and marine environments. By working collaboratively with other disciplines, primarily geography and glaciology, this research expands upon these material and disciplinary boundaries and contributes an exchange of ideas and expertise across intellectual areas. Throughout my work, thinking ecocritically about art history means reshaping traditional narratives to offer historical interlocutors or laboratories that contend with environmental histories and current, global crises.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Art History.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Art History
Accepting PhDsResearch Specialisms
- History of Art
- Environmental History
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Supervision
Supervisees
- MISS MARIA NORDVALL
Funding and Grants
2024 British Academy Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects – Awarded for From the Floe Edge (KF8\230008). PI: Isabelle Gapp (Univ. of Aberdeen). Co-PI: Sarah Cooley (Univ. of Oregon). Co-partner: Kinngait Studios, West Baffin Co-Op, Nunavut. (£259,117.32)
2024 NERC-Arctic Office UK-Greenland Research Bursary – Awarded for Voices on Ice (part of Teaching Arctic Environments). PI: Isabelle Gapp (Univ. of Aberdeen). Co-PI: Penny How (GEUS, Nuuk). (£12,675.28)
2024 University of Manitoba - University Program & Project Seed Fund (UIPPSF) – Awarded for Teaching Arctic Environments. PI: Jonathan Peyton (Univ. of Manitoba). Co-PI: Isabelle Gapp (Univ. of Aberdeen). ($10,000CAD)
2023 University of Aberdeen Internal Funding to Pump-Prime Research and Research Networks – Award for Networking building within the UArctic consortium. (£4795)
2023 Arctic Connections Fund 2023-24, Scottish Government (£8159). For Teaching Arctic Environments with University of Washington and University of Manitoba.
2023 New Foundation for Art History Publication Grant (£3060)
2022 Kungliga Patriotiska Sällskapet (Royal Patriotic Society) Publication Grant, Sweden (£1650)
2022 Association for Art History Scholarly Research Grant (£500)
2021-24 Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group (£5400)
2021 Association for Art History Scholarly Research Grant (£600)