Dott. Maria Pia Casarini

Dott. Casarini graduated in Modern Languages (specializing in English) from the Universita Cattolica, Milan, with a thesis on English folk ballads in America, and later took a second degree in Letters from the same university, with a thesis on Pirandello's plays in the United States. Her marriage to Dr. Peter Wadhams, Reader in Polar Studies at the University of Cambridge, led to her taking part in an international winter expedition to the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, on board the German research icebreaker Polarstern in 1986, about which she wrote the book Unternehmen Polarstern (Econ Verlag, 1988); she also edited the Log of ice observations.

Her polar experiences led her to study for her M. Phil. in Polar Studies from Cambridge University, which she received in 1989 with a thesis on the first attempt on the part of the Australian explorer, Sir Hubert Wilkins, to take a submarine to the North Pole in 1931. In 1989 she took part in another Antarctic expedition on the Polarstern, and again compiled and edited the Log.

For her current Ph.D. project Dott. Casarini has analysed the diaries and letters of Lady Franklin in the Archives of the Scott Polar Institute, to determine the role that Lady Franklin played in the searches for the lost expedition of her husband, Sir John Franklin, which attempted to discover the Northwest Passage in 1845. While reading the output of the very prolific Lady Franklin, she realized that a very interesting part of this lady's life had been spent travelling. Her diaries form a uniquely valuable set of descriptions of little-known and faraway places which Lady Franklin visited, often being among the first Englishwomen to visit these countries.

In 1993, with her husband and a small international party, Dott. Casarini organized the "Lady Franklin Memorial Expedition", an archaeological expedition to the Canadian Arctic, which brought her to the attention of the Italian media. She was also invited to give a lecture on the expedition at the Royal Geographical Society in London, and has since been invited to lecture at many other institutions. She is also lecturing on polar history to students of the M. Phil. in Polar Studies at Cambridge University.

Lectures available: 2001-03