Visiting the Ross Ice Shelf across several seasons, Stephanie Kryzwonos interrogates the heroic narratives of male exploration and conquest—written almost entirely by white men—that gender the land through feminine tropes. Might these characterizations, borne of a colonizing hunger to conquer and subdue, say more about the culture they come from than about the land they describe? What would happen, Stephanie asks, if we moved beyond fantasies and savior complexes, and instead approached Antarctica as a living place with agency?

Read this story.

Explore more stories from Shifting Landscapes, our fourth print volume.

Sign up for our newsletter to hear more stories as they are released each week.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices