Samm Newton
Coleman Dissertation Fellow (2025-2026)
PhD Candidate, Department of History, UW–Madison
Halfway Across the Oceans: Deep-Sea Values and Knowledge in Negotiating the Limits of the Commons
Recent work in the blue humanities on maritime territory and jurisdiction—often termed ocean grabbing—has primarily centered on legal regimes rather than the scientific practices that made environmental value legible. This project offers a complementary perspective that emphasizes the role of expertise and contested values in the ocean’s transition from common property to claimed territory. By analyzing archival print materials and oral histories from industry, academia, and government experts, Halfway Across the Ocean explores the power dynamics underlying the control of marine environments and addresses how ocean knowledge was generated, by whom, and for what purposes.
Samm Newton is a Ph.D. candidate studying the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Newton has also completed coursework minors in Latin American History and Ocean Territory & Governance. Their research interests revolve around how life, non-life, and the more-than-human world have been understood globally in the long twentieth century. This work is informed by archival research on industry science, analysis of expertise in federal marine policies, and observations made working on offshore jurisdiction for the U.S. Senate as a John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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