Ruka Hussain
DPhil Research Topic
"Environmental Knowledge and Romantic Science in the Atlantic World: George Catlin’s Natural History"
Supervisor: Stephen Tuffnell
My research examines George Catlin (1796–1872) as a practitioner of natural history, exploring how his paintings, writings, and travelling exhibitions functioned as forms of environmental knowledge-making in the 19th century. Situated at the intersection of the history of science, art, intellectual history, and environmental history, my work argues that Catlin’s natural-historical practice was shaped by Romantic scientific sensibilities that extended beyond institutional science and circulated through shared visual, textual, and material cultures of learning.
Through close analysis of artworks, books, exhibition practices, and their transnational reception, I investigate how knowledge about nature was produced, experienced, and debated by diverse publics during periods of profound ecological and political transformation.
In particular, my research engages with:
-
Enlightenment and Romantic natural philosophy and their afterlives;
-
Conceptions of time and space in American and global contexts;
-
The formal and medial practices through which environmental knowledge was produced and experienced across the Atlantic world.
My broader research interests lie in the environmental humanities, global and imperial history, and histories of art and literature. I have previously convened/co-convened the Environmental History Working Group and Interdisciplinary Visual Culture Studies seminar.
Before starting my DPhil, I completed a BA in History and an MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture at Oxford. The latter was funded by the Slade Scholarship and the Oxford-Cathcart Scholarship at Harris Manchester College. My DPhil project is funded by the Merton Weston Earth Scholarship, of which I am the first recipient representing the Humanities division.
Aside from my studies, I work in the field of study abroad, supporting visiting students from U.S. institutions at Oxford. I also write creatively, particularly fiction and poetry. I would be very happy to speak with prospective students who are considering applying for graduate programmes.
