School of History

Arik Clausner

Supervisor: Dr. John F. Clark
Thesis Title: In Aid of Nation and Empire: The Emergence of the Professional British Entomologist

After growing up in sunny San Diego, I attended Dartmouth College, where I completed my B.A. in 2009 with majors in European History (High Honors) and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies. After a short break I returned to studying history, earning a M.Sc. in Modern British and Irish History at the University of Edinburgh, following which I began my Ph.D. work at the University of St. Andrews.

Since my days as an undergraduate, I have been keenly interested in the history of the United Kingdom, and have undertaken a number of research projects that focused on aspects of British social, cultural and political history between 1870-1930. My current work examines the ways in which the Empire influenced the development of science, medicine and society in Britain. In particular, I am studying the ways in which the medical and agricultural needs of the far-flung colonies of the British Empire led to the emergence and development of the field of applied entomology. While retracing the flow of men and ideas between Great Britain and her colonies, I will also seek to reconstruct the inner workings of Imperial networks of trade, control and administration. Ultimately, I hope to use my study of the history of entomology in Britain and the colonies to shed new light on the political, economic, medical and environmental history of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British Empire.