Daniella McCahey's primary research attempts to connect Antarctic geographies to greater world history. Her current book project examines the United Kingdom’s 1955-1958 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, arguing that the way this project unfolded demonstrated a scientific community unable to cope with the twin pressures of decolonization and the Cold War. Dr. McCahey has broad interests and has authored/co-authored articles and scholarly book chapters on topics ranging from the media-savvy of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, to paleontology and popular culture in the 1990s, to pornography in Antarctic research stations. She is also conducting ongoing international collaborative research projects on the history of permafrost science and on the history of the British Empire’s use of science in its Southern Ocean empire. 

Dr. McCahey earned a BA in Political Science at Northwestern University, an MA in History of Science at the University of Oklahoma, and an MA & PhD in History at the University of California, Irvine. Her research has been supported by numerous organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Royal Society of New Zealand, American Institute of Physics, and the Albertine Foundation. Dr. McCahey is also interested in public history, regularly lending her expertise on various aspects of polar history to museums around the world and regularly publishing in popular venues. Since 2019, she has served as the Book Review Editor at H-Environment; in this position she has overseen the publication of over 800 scholarly book reviews.

At Texas Tech, Dr. McCahey teaches the Western Civilization survey and offers a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in the history of science and modern British history.