Ascension: Worlding in the Wake of Island Imaginaries

In JAE 78.2 Worlding. Energy. Transitions. Edited by Billy Fleming and Rania Ghosn

Co-authored with Jeffrey S. Nesbit

2024

In the middle of the South Atlantic lies Ascension Island, a modest island constructed in the background of Cold War politics and military history. This essay examines Ascension Island in three parts: first, from geologic prehistory to British naval occupation; second, the operation of the island by the United States military and installation of NASA tracking stations; and third, the lost histories in the wake of empire building. Ascension, initially deemed uninhabitable, became a technical island. This essay explores a distant island which may mirror our future world.