Dr. Giovanni Zanalda and Ambassador Bob Pearson (ret) are participating in a project that brings together scholars and students from across the university to explore human expansion into space through the history of planetary exploration, settlement and colonization on Earth. The team will investigate what lessons past experiences on Earth may offer for future communities off-Earth, from Norwegians settling Iceland in the 870s C.E. through the Mayflower Compact in 1620. Team members will investigate whether the long history of company-led colonization, such as the East India or Hudson’s Bay Companies, might inform policy decisions by and about the ambitions of corporations like SpaceX or Blue Origin. The team will also consider the consequences of encounters with life on other planets in light of the legal, cultural, etiological and environmental impacts of past settler encounters with indigenous human, animal, plant and microbial life.
Team Leaders
- Chelsea Nielsen, School of Law and Nicholas School of the Environment-JD and MEM Student
- Philip Stern, Arts & Sciences-History
- Jonathan Wiener, Duke Law
- Giovanni Zanalda, Social Science Research Institute
Faculty/Staff Team Contributors
- Daniel Buckland, School of Medicine-Surgery: Emergency Medicine
- Mohamed Noor, Arts & Sciences-Biology
- Siobhan Oca, Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
- Robert Pearson, Duke Rethinking Diplomacy Program
- Shitong Qiao, Duke Law
- Mara Revkin, Duke Law
Read more about the project and Bass Connections here: https://bassconnections.duke.edu/project-teams/future-space-settlements-lessons-history-2024-2025
