Taylor Hersh is a PhD student in Biology and Killam Scholar studying the culture of sperm whales and how understanding their different dialects can help us improve conservation efforts.
@taylorahersh
What do we owe each other? What do we owe the whales? This year, and the pandemic that will go down in history as its defining feature, has forced us to grapple with that first question like never before. Personal liberties and the collective good seem to be clashing no matter where you look: in […]
If you read my last blog, you know that sperm whales live in distinct cultural groups, called vocal clans, and that each clan speaks a unique dialect. From long-term research in the eastern Tropical Pacific and the eastern Caribbean, we know that clans can be distinguished based on their dialects alone, although they also differ […]
“A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.” – Gaston Bachelard I have always been a good eavesdropper. For an energetic (read: obnoxious) little kid, I was surprisingly good at making myself as small and quiet as possible when adults were talking. I got a certain sense […]
November 1, 2018 Halifax, Nova Scotia 44°38’10.5″ N, 63°35’37.9″ W It’s nearing the end of my guest lecture on language evolution in a class at Dalhousie. We’re locked in a good-natured, but heated, debate about the “right” word to use to refer to a hooded sweatshirt. Most of the class—myself included—says ‘hoodie’, but a single […]
I’ll preface this blog by saying that I don’t believe my voice (that of a white woman) is one that needs to be amplified. I also believe that individuals who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) should not and cannot be the only ones acknowledging and speaking out against systemic racism and barriers to participation in academia and beyond. I am still learning […]
May 19, 2020 Halifax, Nova Scotia 44° 38′ 43.19″ N, 63° 34′ 20.60″ W For the first time since starting my PhD, I spent the month of April in Halifax. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to be doing what I usually do during Halifax’s soggy spring: studying eastern Caribbean sperm whales with […]
February 22, 2018 Atlantic Ocean 41° 52′ 13.8″ N, 63° 23′ 25.8″ W I’m 300 km off the coast of Nova Scotia on a 12 m sailboat and have thrown up four times in two hours. It’s a new personal record. On top of the seasickness, the weather is chilly and everything (and everyone) on […]
