Vanessa Bateman's research spans art and visual culture, environmental history, history of science, and museum studies from the nineteenth century to the present. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher for the NWO-Vici project "Moving Animals: A History of Science, Media, and Policy in the 20th Century" at Maastricht University (Netherlands). Vanessa is the recipient of the 2024/25 ESEH-Gale Fellowship in Digital Environmental History from the European Society for Environmental History.

 

Her book (tentatively titled) Birds in Focus and Frequency: A Media History of Conservation examines the intersection of visual media and grassroots environmentalism in the 20th century, from early ornithological photography, 16-mm film lectures, and expanded media in color and sound. This project asks: How can visual culture related to wildlife help build political movement? What are the potential real-life consequences on the animals and environments represented in image?

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Vanessa holds a PhD in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the University of California San Diego with a Specialization in Anthropogeny from the Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA). She is from Toronto, Canada and lives in the Netherlands.