EVENT DATE: February 11, 2021
TOPIC: Lady Franklin of Russell Square – Lost Franklin Expedition (via Zoom Webinar session)

Erika Behrisch grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska and spent her adolescent years and early adulthood in British Columbia, before moving to Kingston.

She is professor of English, Culture and Communication at the Royal Military College of Canada. Her research is nineteenth-century naval exploration narratives, especially the parts of the story that get left out of the big history books. Her current project is on Royal Naval surgeons, and it includes an academic project and a novel.

She has recently written a book about the lost Franklin Expedition, titled Lady Franklin of Russell Square, describing Lady Franklin’s chronicled reports of the doomed Arctic odyssey of her husband, Sir John Franklin. The book was shortlisted for the Book Publishers’ Association of Alberta’s Fiction of the Year prize in 2019 and named one of Canadian Geographic’s favourite books of 2018.

Erika lives in Kingston, Ontario.