Dr. Sophia Nicolov

Bio

I am an environmental historian specialising in histories of humans, marine mammals and oceans, working mainly on twentieth century Anglophone world history with a major focus British Empire and its twenty-first century legacies. I have been particularly focused on whales and other cetaceans in the context of whaling, strandings, museums and heritage. My research involves interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration and collections-based research. I have a strong interest in the intersection between environmental history and public history, and making research and collections more accessible through non-academic collaboration and public engagement.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Solid Carbon project led by Ocean Networks Canada researching histories of industrial extraction and cultural engagement with deep time in the context of carbon capture technology in British Columbia. I previously held an Arts and Humanities Research Council Early Career Research Fellowship at the Natural History Museum, London, UK, where I led the Cetacean (Re)Sources project (2023-2026). Working with the Principal Curator of Marine Mammals, my research investigated the role of British imperialism and industrial whaling in the development of the Cetacea collection. I was also an Arts and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow on the Charismatic Encounters project at the University of Leeds (2022-2023).

Publications

Articles and chapters

Huggan, Graham, and Sophia Nicolov, 'The Animal That Remembers: History, hauntology, and animality in Elizabeth Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers and Ian McGuire's The North Water', Publications of the Modern Literature Association (PMLA), 139 (2025), pp. 806-820.

Nicolov, Sophia, 'Open Endings: The Eastern North Pacific gray whale unusual mortality event, 1999-2000', Symplokē, Blue Humanities special issue, 27 (2019) pp. 15-33.

Nicolov, Sophia 'Recovered Species? The Eastern North Pacific grey whale unusual mortality event, 1999-2000', in Jill Atkins and Barry Atkins (eds.), Around the World in 80 Species: Exploring the business of extinction (Routledge: Oxon, 2018).

Selected non-academic writing

‘The Whale of Wembley’, Natural History Museum Magazine (2025).

‘Re-examining Britain’s Role in Whaling’, Natural History Museum (2025).

Nicolov, Sophia, and James Ashworth, ‘Whales in Wembley: Origins of mysterious blue whale bones uncovered’, Natural History Museum (2024).

Nicolov, Sophia, ‘Whale Timeline: Yorkshire, England’, World Cetacean Alliance (2023).