Internship at the Arctic Centre, Feedback by Anna-Maria Manz

In October and November 2010 I made a four-week internship at the Anthropology Team in the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi. I am glad that I may share my experiences and impressions on this new online platform for Arctic Anthropology. In this context I also want to express my gratitude towards the anthropologists for offering me this great internship opportunity and for welcoming me so warm-heartedly among them!

I headed to Finland from Freiburg (Germany), where I am studying Cultural and Social Anthropology, Geography and Sinology. Several journeys to China, Russia and Fennoscandia during the last years lead to an interest in Asia and the circumpolar regions,

which became decisive for my further studies. After searching for an internship in an academic institution in the North, I was very happy and grateful that the anthropologists of the Arctic Centre invited me to spend some time among their group in Rovaniemi. My stay there was a month full of inspiring moments – they not only provided me an insight in circumpolar anthropology and in their research projects but also into their life and work as anthropologists in the North.

My daily work in the Arctic Centre consisted mostly in supporting the anthropologists in their research projects and teaching. I was doing literature research, assisting in research application processes, helping to prepare university lessons, organizing some video materials from a fieldtrip to Yakutia, arranging topographical maps for the fieldwork regions and so on. For this purpose I was provided with my own office including a personal computer with internet access and was furthermore allowed to use all facilities of the Arctic Centre (the library, the museum) for my own study. Besides my office work I could take part in any university lessons of the Arctic Studies Programme and attend interesting lectures in the Arctic Centre. I was especially delighted about the many connections my work had with Yakutia, where I had spent several weeks the previous summer. Through all these activities I learned a lot about the Arctic and its inhabitants and about the research that anthropologists are doing among them.

Though, it was not only my work, but it were also many other activities and the meeting of so many interesting people, that made my internship a valuable and enriching experience. The coffee breaks in the Arctic Centre were a good chance to get to know the colleagues and their projects – researchers, PhD-students, librarians, office workers and other interns – and to make plans for the leisure time and weekend: hiking at Ounasvaara and around Rovaniemi in the frosty and dark winter days, sharing time during breakfasts and dinners, watching documentary films, attending the burning of the fire sculptures near the river and so on.

Moreover, I spent some pleasant days with a guest from Yakutsk, with whom I visited Santa Claus and who was teaching me a lot about Siberian shamanism. And, as for the anthropologists, it was not only during the marvelous Italian coffee breaks, that they provided a space for interesting talks, that they shared their rich experiences with me and gave me valuable advices for my own study and my forthcoming master thesis.

At this point I want to express my gratitude to all who helped me to realize this journey to Finland and who contributed to making it such a pleasant and enriching experience. First of all I am indebted to Florian Stammler for coordinating and supervising my internship and to the other anthropologists, Anna Stammler-Gossmann, Nuccio Mazzullo and Alla Bolotova, for welcoming me in their team and sharing their experiences with me. Moreover, I want to thank Adam and Sébastien for arranging my accommodation in the student dormitory, Alla for welcoming me on my first evening and for many nice meetings and Martina and the other PhDs for taking me to the forest around Rovaniemi! From all of you I learned a lot of what it means to live and work as an anthropologist in the Arctic and I got many inspirations for my further study in and beyond the circumpolar regions. Thank you!