Biography
Gillen D'Arcy Wood is Robert W. Schaefer Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with appointments in English and the Department of Earth Science and Environmental Change, and is Associate Director at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE). He directs the Certificate in Environmental Writing (co-sponsored by the English Department), and serves as editor of Q Magazine, dedicated to student environmental writing. He is the author of five books on nineteenth-century literature, culture, and environmental history, including the award-winning Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World (Princeton 2014) and, most recently, Land of Wondrous Cold: The Race to Discover Antarctica and the Secrets of its Ice (Princeton 2020). His work has been translated into eight languages. His new book, Blue Wild: The Lost Oceans of HMS Challenger, revisits the iconic Challenger research expedition (1872-76) as a pre-industrial baseline for our deteriorating oceans. It was awarded a Carnegie Foundation Fellowship for 2021-22, and will be published by Princeton University Press in Fall 2025.
Research Interests
Climate Change, Ocean Studies, The Anthropocene, History of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Literature and the Visual and Performing Arts, Poetry and Poetics, Nineteenth-Century British Culture and Empire
Education
Ph.D Columbia University, 2000
Awards and Honors
Robert W. Schaefer Professorship in Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2023-
Fellow, Scottish Association for Marine Science 2023-
Carnegie Foundation Fellowship, 2021-22
Andrew and Susan Langan Professorial Scholar (Illinois), 2015-18
Kendrick Memorial Book Prize, Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSA), 2015
Honorable Mention, Atmospheric Science Librarians International Book of the Year, 2014
Books of the Year Award: The Guardian, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 2014
Nicholson Professorial Scholar (Illinois), 2009-12
Undergraduate Teaching Award (Illinois), 2008-09
Fulbright Scholarship, 1992-93
Courses Taught
ENG360 Environmental Writing. ENG498 Environmental Writing for Publication. ESEC201 History of Geology. ENG431 Green Romanticism.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Affiliate Professor, Department of Earth Science and Environmental Change
Affiliate Professor, Center for Global Studies
Associate Director, Institute for Earth, Society, and Environment
Director, Certificate in Environmental Writing (CEW)
Editor, Q Magazine
Highlighted Publications
Land of Wondrous Cold: The Race to Discover Antarctica and Unlock the Secrets of its Ice (Princeton 2020)
Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World (Princeton 2014)
Romanticism and Music Culture in Britain, 1760-1860 (Cambridge 2010)
Hosack's Folly: A Novel of Old New York (Other Press, 2005)
The Shock of the Real: Romanticism and Visual Culture (Palgrave Macmillan 2001)
Recent Publications
D’Arcy Wood, G. (2024). Climate and the Little Ice Age. In E. Aronova, D. Sepkoski, & M. Tamborini (Eds.), Handbook of the Historiography of the Earth and Environmental Sciences (pp. 1-18). (Historiographies of Science). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92679-3_9-1
Wood, G. D. A. (2022). Brooch Clams and Blind Lobsters: HMS Challenger in the Australasian Pacific, 1874–5. In The Making and Remaking of Australasia: Mobility, Texts and 'Southern Circulations' (pp. 169-182). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350283862.ch-009
Wood, G. DA. (2020). Land of Wondrous Cold: The Race to Discover Antarctica and Unlock the Secrets of Its Ice. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n3zm
Wood, G. DA. (2020). Shelley's Musical Gifts. In D. da Sousa Correa (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music (pp. 340-348). (Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities). Edinburgh University Press.
Wood, G. DA. (2020). Stendhal at La Scala: The Birth of Musical Fandom. In D. da Sousa Correa (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music (pp. 429-436). (Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities). Edinburgh University Press.