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Penelope Hardy

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Associate Professor
History University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Penelope Hardy's office hours

Monday
By appointment only
Tuesday
01:00 to 02:00
or by appointment
Wednesday
By appointment only
Thursday
01:00 to 02:00
or by appointment
Friday
By appointment only

Remote office hours offered: Email me & I'll turn on Zoom during regular office hours, or click on "Meet with Me" on my profile page to make an appointment and specify your platform of choice..
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Penelope Hardy Pronouns: she/her/hers

Associate Professor

History

Specialty area(s)

History of science, technology, and medicine, especially technologies of ocean science. 

Brief biography

Penelope K. Hardy is an historian of science, technology, and medicine, focusing on technologies of science, ocean sciences, and scientific exploration of the global ocean. Hardy’s research on ocean sciences in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries focuses on the role of ocean-going research vessels in the development of modern scientific understanding of the oceans and the ocean-atmosphere system, and in the establishment of oceanography as a field. Her academic fields of interest include the relationship between science and the public, the role of technology in American society, the professionalization of science, and changes in popular understanding of the deep oceans. She has published on topics including military-scientific partnerships in the US and UK, meteorology in interwar Germany, and ocean mapping as both technical feat and imaginative exercise. A recipient of numerous research fellowships, including from the Smithsonian Institution, the American Meteorological Society, the Huntington Library, and the North American Society for Oceanic History, Hardy is also co-founder of an international working group examining the history of oceanic science, technology, and medicine.

Current courses at UWL

Spring 2025

       HIS 110 - Technology & Science in World History     

       HIS 490 - History Research Seminar

Fall 2025

       HIS 110 - Technology & Science in World History     

      HIS 384 - Epidemics in World History

Education

PhD in History of Science & Technology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 

MA in History, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 

BS in Aerospace Engineering (Astronautics), US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 

Career

Teaching history

Past courses include:

     Historiography and Historical Methods (HIS 200) 

     Survey of the History of Modern Science (HIS 280)

     Epidemics in World History (HIS 384)

     History of US Science and Technology (HIS 309)

     Knowing the Oceans (HIS 371) 

During the summer of 2023, I supervised a student in the Freshwater@UW Summer Scholar program. 

Professional history

Before coming to UW-La Crosse in 2019, I was a visiting assistant professor at Xavier University, in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Research and publishing

I am the vice president for research and publications at H-Net, and I serve as book review editor for H-Sci-Med-Tech and H-Oceans.

My edited volume Space of Inquiry: Making Science and Technology in the Modern World is under contract with Routledge for a fall 2025 release date. My co-editors are Dr. Amy Bix, Dr. Bruce J. Hunt, and Dr. Scott Gabriel Knowles.

With Jonathan Galka, Dr. Alison Glassie, and Dr. Katrin Kleemann, I organized two symposia on "Oceanic Expertise, Extraction & Empire" and "Ocean Circulations," featuring eight panels with twenty-four scholars from around the world for the 27th International Congress of the History of Science and Technology to be held in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2025.

I co-wrote, with Dr. Helen M. Rozwadowski, a blog post on "Reckoning with a Racist Legacy in Ocean Science" for the International Commission of the History of Oceanography in June 2020.

Articles and chapters:

“Thinking Inside the Box.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 54, no. 1 (February 2024): 105-108.

"Water as the Medium of Measurement: Mapping Global Oceans in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries."Ch 5 in Hydrohumanities: Water Discourse and Environmental Futures, edited by Kim DeWolff, Rina Faletti, and Ignacio López-Calvo, pp. 118-140. (Oakland: University of California Press, 2021).

“Finding the History of the World at the Bottom of the Ocean: Hydrography, Natural History, and the Sea in the Nineteenth Century.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 110, no. 4 (July 2021): 117-132.

w/ Dr. Helen M. Rozwadowski, "Maury for Modern Times: Navigating a Racist Legacy in Ocean Science," Oceanography 33, 3 (September 2020): 8-13.

"Meteorology as Nationalism on the German Atlantic Expedition, 1925-1927." History of Meteorology 8, Relocating Meteorology (December 2017): 124-144.

"Every Ship a Floating Observatory: Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Acquisition of Knowledge at Sea." In Soundings and Crossings: Doing Science at Sea 1800-1970, edited by Katharine Anderson and Helen M. Rozwadowski (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications/Watson Publishing International, 2016): 17-48.

"Matthew Fontaine Maury: Scientist." In "Forum: Reconsidering Matthew Fontaine Maury," International Journal of Maritime History 28, no. 2 (May 2016): 402-410.

I have reviewed scholarly books for Science, Technology and Culture, The British Journal for the History of Science, International Journal of Maritime History, Endeavour, The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, History: Review of New Books, Global Maritime History, H-Environment, H-Water, H-War, The Michigan Historical Review, Michigan War Studies Review, and Anthropological Forum.

Kudos

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Writing Your Cover Letter" at HSS/ASEH Virtual Workshop: Job Market Documents on Monday, April 21 online. This workshop explored what makes a compelling job application portfolio for academic jobs in the history of science, environmental history, and allied fields. Hardy focused on one of six job application components and then took questions from the audience. The workshop was a virtual event co-hosted by the Graduate and Early Career Caucus of the History of Science Society (HSS) and the Early Career Caucus of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH).

Submitted on: April 21

interviewed

Penelope Hardy, History, was interviewed by David Shiffman of Southern Fried Science on Wednesday, Feb. 19. Amid calls to cut U.S. government science funding, Hardy discussed the over-200-year history of federal government support for ocean science.

Submitted on: Feb. 19

elected

Penelope Hardy, History, was elected vice president of Research and Publications for H-Net. H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online is an international consortium of scholars and teachers that creates and coordinates networks of over 230,000 subscribers in more than 200 countries, with the common objective of advancing teaching and research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. During her two-year term, Hardy will be responsible for formulating policies and overseeing projects for H-Net publications.

Submitted on: Nov. 1, 2024

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Prince Albert I of Monaco and the Ocean as Environment" at 4th World Congress of Environmental History on Aug. 23 in Oulu, Finland. Hardy organized two panels, as well as chairing a session and presenting on Prince Albert's late-19th century engagement with ocean science as an environmental approach to early oceanography.

Submitted on: Aug. 27, 2024

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Technology, Sovereignty, and the Grammar of Empire in the History of Ocean Sciences" at the joint annual meeting of the International Commission of the History of Technology and the Society for the History of Technology on July 13 in Viña del Mar, Chile. Hardy chaired the panel and provided commentary on papers by Dr. Natalia Gándara Chacana (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Chile), Nancy Ko (Columbia University, USA), and Jonathan Galka (Harvard University, USA/Yale-NUS College, Singapore).

Submitted on: July 17, 2024

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Publishing Maritime, Naval, Oceanographic, and Marine Environmental History for Diverse Audiences" at Canadian Nautical Research Society/Société Canadienne pour la Recherche Nautique and the North American Society for Oceanic History 2024 Conference on June 20 in St Catharines, Ontario. Hardy chaired a roundtable discussion with Katharine Anderson, York University; Benjamin Armstrong, United States Naval Academy; Christine Keiner, Rochester Institute of Technology; Lincoln Paine, University of Maine; and Helen Rozwadowski, University of Connecticut.

Submitted on: June 24, 2024

published

Penelope Hardy, History, authored the article "Thinking Inside the Box" in Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, vol 54, no. 1 (Feb 2024), published on March 15 by the University of California Press. In the essay, Hardy details an experiential in-class exercise she developed for her course HIS 371: Knowing the Oceans to help students grasp the historical difficulties of studying the bottom of the sea.

Submitted on: Mar. 16, 2024

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Life at Sea onboard HMS Challenger" at Challenger Conversations on Feb. 8 online. Hardy was part of a roundtable presenting overviews of life at sea during the HMS Challenger expedition, life at sea today, and life at sea using technology in future. This conversational webinar series starts with the legacy of the HMS Challenger expedition on its 150th anniversary and develops a diverse global community of citizen scientists who understand the influence of the ocean on our lives and our influence on the ocean.

Submitted on: Feb. 12, 2024

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Ships, Science, and the Sea: Research Vessels and the Development of Ocean Science" at Deutsches Schiffahrts Museum International Lecture Series on Ocean Humanities on Tuesday, Jan. 30 online. Hardy presented case studies of nineteenth and twentieth century researchers from several countries and their research vessels, showing how the changes they made to ships created a new science and led to the ways we see and study the oceans today.

Submitted on: Jan. 30, 2024

presented

Penelope Hardy, History, presented "Grasping the Bottom of the Nineteenth-century Sea in a Twenty-first-century Classroom" at the 50th International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) Annual Conference on Aug. 17 in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia. The presentation explained a pedagogical exercise Hardy developed to help students understand the historical challenge of accessing the deep ocean.

Submitted on: Aug. 21, 2023

Memberships & affiliations

[{"organization":"International Commission of the History of Oceanography","position":"Vice President","url":"https://oceansciencehistory.com/"},{"organization":"North America Society for Oceanic History","position":"Council Member","url":"https://nasoh.org/"}]