RUSSELL FIELDING geographer
CV and Publications
Why do you write like you're running out of time?
—Lin-Manuel Miranda, "Non-Stop," Hamilton
Current CV
Download (PDF)
Book
The Wake of the Whale: Hunter Societies in the Caribbean and North Atlantic. Harvard University Press, 2018
At publisher's website
At independent bookstores
At Amazon.com
At Google Books
Erratum: The values for two columns were transposed in the St. Vincent whaling records, included on p.294 of the Appendix. The corrected table, which will be included in future printings of the book, can be downloaded here (PDF).
Awards and Nominations
Awarded the Furthermore Grant from the J.M. Kaplan Fund
Nominated for the Mountbatten Award, Maritime Foundation of the UK
Nominated for the Globe Book Award, American Association of Geographers
Nominated for the Margaret Mead Award, American Anthropological Association
Reviews
"a vivid account of artisanal whaling" Times Higher Education
"skillfully detailed... tactfully honest" Caribbean Compass (p.32)
"eye opening… and a unique perspective on a very controversial means of subsistence" The Marine Diaries
"very impressive research" Conservation & Society
"a thought-provoking page-turner" AAG Review of Books
"[an] engagingly written... intriguing environmental study" Choice (PDF)
"[T]his book will set your moral compass spinning and challenge your implicit biases." New West Indian Guide (PDF)
"With Fielding's book, the whaling literature has gained an extremely important work..." Polar Record
"The prose is inviting and... seamlessly raises important yet provocative questions about conservation" H-Environment
Academic Papers (PDFs)
Refereed Journal Articles
2021
Feeding Ecology of Elusive Caribbean Killer Whales Inferred From Bayesian Stable Isotope Mixing Models and Whalers’ Ecological Knowledge. Frontiers in Marine Science
Circular DNA viruses identified in short-finned pilot whale and orca tissue samples. Virology
Artisanal and Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Eastern Caribbean): History, Catch Characteristics, and Needs for Research and Management. Frontiers in Marine Science
History of Whaling in Annobón, Equatorial Guinea, and Evidence of its Continued Occurrence. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management
Contemporary Whaling in the Faroe Islands: Its History, Challenges, and Outlook. Senri Ethnological Studies
Demographic and Geographic Patterns of Cetacean-based Food Product Consumption and Potential Mercury Exposure within a Caribbean Whaling Community. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment
2020
"A Change of Name during Sickness": Surveying the Widespread Practice of Renaming in Response to Physical Illness. Names: A Journal of Onomastics
Mercury and selenium concentrations, and selenium:mercury molar ratios, in small cetaceans taken off St. Vincent, West Indies. Environmental Research
2019
Oceanographic barriers, divergence, and admixture: Phylogeography and taxonomy of two putative subspecies of short-finned pilot whale. Molecular Ecology
Motivating Sustainable Behavior: A Case Study in Waste Management and Freshwater Production on the Caribbean Island of Saint Barthélemy. Island Studies Journal
2017
Inclusive Hunting: Examining Faroese Whaling Using the Theory of Socio-Cultural Viability. Maritime Studies
2015
Mutual Aid, Environmental Policy, and the Regulation of Faroese Pilot Whaling. Human Geography
2014
Mercury in Caribbean Dolphins (Stenella longirostris and Stenella frontalis) Caught for Human Consumption off St. Vincent, West Indies. Marine Pollution Bulletin
“The Good Garbage”: Waste to Water in the Small Island Environment of St. Barthélemy. Focus on Geography
2013
Whaling Futures: A Survey of Faroese and Vincentian Youth on the Topic of Artisanal Whaling. Society and Natural Resources
Coastal Geomorphology and Culture in the Spatiality of Whaling in the Faroe Islands. Area
2012
Queen of the Caribbees: Farming and Fishing Foci on the Island of Nevis. Focus on Geography
2010
Environmental Change as a Threat to the Pilot Whale Hunt in the Faroe Islands. Polar Research
2009
The Whale Drivers of Newfoundland. Focus on Geography
2007
A Comparison of Pilot Whale Drives in Newfoundland and the Faroe Islands. The Scottish Geographical Journal
Book Chapters
2018
Safety First: The Biases of Gender and Precaution in Field Research. In Femininities in the Field: Tourism and Transdisciplinary Research
2017
Saint Martin/Sint Maarten and Saint Barthélemy. In Landscapes and Landforms of the Lesser Antilles
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. In Landscapes and Landforms of the Lesser Antilles
Indigeneity and Ecology in Alaskan and Faroese Whaling. In Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory
Whaling. In Humans and Animals: A Geography of Coexistence
“The Good Garbage”: Waste-to-Energy Applications and Issues in the Insular Caribbean. In Island Geographies: Essays and Conversations
Tourism, Links, and Islandness off Florida’s Gulf Coast. In Bridging Islands: The Impact of Fixed Links
Book Reviews
2021
Whale Snow: Iñupiat, Climate Change, and Multispecies Resilience in Arctic Alaska, by C. Sakakibara. Geographical Review
2019
Collecting Evolution: the Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin, by M.J. James. Island Studies Journal
2018
Into the Ocean: Vikings, Irish, and Environmental Change in Iceland and the North, by K. Ahronson. AAG Review of Books
2016
2015
The Survival of People and Languages: Schooners, Goats, and Cassava in St. Barthélemy, French West Indies, by J. Maher. Island Studies Journal
2014
Soqotra Archipelago (Yemen): Toward systemic and scientifically objective sustainability in development and conservation, by F. Attorre (ed). Island Studies Journal
Biodiversity and Societies in the Pacific Islands, by S. Larrue (ed). Island Studies Journal
2012
Iceland Imagined: Nature, Culture, and Storytelling in the North Atlantic, by K. Oslund. Geographical Review
2011
Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic, by V.E. Szabo. Geographical Review
2008
Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal, special issue on the Historical Human Ecology of the Faroe Islands, by K.J. Edwards (ed). Island Studies Journal
Non-academic Articles and Blog Posts
What have whales got to do with fossil fuels and renewable energy? Energy Ethics (September 5, 2020)
On blackfish and bearing bad news The Vincentian (March 27, 2020)
Japan’s scientific whaling ruse is over Foreign Policy (February 7, 2019)
Pollution is making whale meat toxic—but imprudent activism makes some double-down on eating whale Salon (December 2, 2018)
Anarchy in the North Atlantic Sociologi i Örebro (April 12, 2015)
Blackfishing, Scandinavian Style The Vincentian (August 6-September 3, 2010)
Karibiskir Grindamenn Frøði (2009) English translation (text only)
Peacefully Watching the Slaughter The Explorers Journal (summer 2007)
