The seminar will take place in St. Petersburg 23-23 November 2021. Please apply with an abstract (up to 500 words) and a short biography (150 words) until the 31st of May 2021 at sevmorput2021@gmail.com. There will be a limited number of travel grants available and you might indicate your need and potential costs. The results of the selection of speakers will be announced until 30th June 2021. The participants will be asked to submit a manuscript of their paper until 1st November 2021 (around 5000 words) to be circulated among participants before the seminar. See more detail below in Russian
Our colleagues organise an interesting workshop during the Arctic Science Summit Week in Akureyri. If you go there anyway, this is surely worth checking out:
We would like to invite you to the 2-days gender-workshop during ASSW 2020 where natural sciences and social sciences share their experiences.
IASC & IASSA Workshop Gender in Polar Research –
Gendered field work conditions, epistemologies and legacies
Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Akureyri, Iceland
29–30 March 2020
Room #102
See the multi-faceted, exciting program via this link.
Please, do not hesitate to drop in any time, in case you do not have time to follow the full program.
We have prepared talks, arts and interactive elements and welcome you, in particular, to share in the afternoon your knowledge and experience in break out groups and the “walk of ideas”.
Short DESCRIPTION:
We welcome all participants of the Arctic Science Summit Week 2020 to a cross-disciplinary workshop to discuss and reflect on the gendered nature of Polar research.
The workshop will combine three strands of debate that have thus far not been discussed systematically:
Doing science in the 21st century in a way that departs from but also pays careful attention to the history of exploration and colonial endeavours as “heroic” and masculine activities – while a masculine image still seems to dominate the methodologies and practices of Arctic and Polar research.
The still existing gender gap when it comes to female researchers in hard sciences, their career prospects, and their sometimes difficult working conditions as women in the field. Critiques of the gender gap and gendered research work have thus far neglected the diversity aspects of queer and gender minority (LGBTQI) researchers. They face particular challenges while working in a still largely heteronormative research environment as it is described for research stations, vessels or tundra/taiga camps.
The gendered composition of researchers as actors and the gendered spaces of conducting research, including the field sites, have an important impact on research interests, research design, research ethics and epistemology. The gender bias affects the research subject and methodology, and Polar research can learn from and communicate with other fields of science about how to ensure a high standard of equality, sensitivity to issues of marginalization, and ethical production of science.
The workshop is financially supported by IASC and organised by members of the “Gender in the Arctic” Working Group of IASSA.
With best regards and looking forward to you in Akureyri,
The organisers
Gertrude Saxinger, IASC SHWG, IASSA
J. Otto Habeck, IAS SHWG, IASSA
Stephan Dudeck, IASSA
Katariina Kyrölä, IASSA
The Arctic is a region that is commonly associated with animals. It is typical for people in the south to imagine (sub)arctic inhabitants living together with polar bears and reindeer (if not with penguins). Indeed, for thousands of years, human life in the boreal regions has been dependent on animals, probably more than anywhere else in the world. As a result, human-animal relations vary from domestication to avoidance, from socialization to demonization, and from symbolization to ignoring.
Following the success of the last workshop, we plan to continue discussing these different qualities of human-animal relationship through the notions of symbiosis and symbolic value. In biology, symbiosis (from the Greek “living together”) refers to the interaction between two organisms that are in a mutualistic, commensalistic or parasitic relationship. We believe these different aspects deserve a closer look as heuristic conceptual tools for social scientists when discussing domestication, consumption, cohabitation, transportation, diseases, and pet ownership in the Arctic. How do people imagine their relationship with animals? In which situations are these seen as mutually beneficial or parasitic? How are these relationships represented through symbolic means?
Many Arctic regions have animals on their coat of arms. However, as most people now live in settlements, they have rarely seen these animals in person. This also increasingly applies to the descendants of indigenous pastoral nomads and hunters, as once mobile families have given up their traditional livelihoods in the Arctic regions. In these changing settings, what kind of relationships with animals exist in urban islands of the North? What is the animals’ economic or spiritual value (as transport animals, sources of fur, companionship, hunting game, means of sacrifice, tourist attractions, accumulation of wealth, etc.)? What is the symbolic value of animals which once were present and are now represented by folklore dance groups or artists as part of their indigenous culture? What is the role of familiar human companions such as dogs in the changing patterns of northern livelihoods? How is the food of indigenous communities (reindeer, whales, bears, birds, fish, etc.) valued and used in the transformed social, legal and environmental contexts? We wish to address these and related questions in the workshop in Tartu.
Our goal is to assemble a truly interdisciplinary collection of presentations that will focus on the cultural and social side of the topic, contributing to a better understanding of the economic, political or ecological aspects in general. Therefore, we encourage participation not only by anthropologists but also by economists, political scientists, historians, human geographers, biologists and others. The informal nature of the workshop is suited for senior scholars discussing their research results and also for PhD students who have fieldwork experience in the region.
As a keynote speaker, we are proud to announce Riina Kaljurand from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia. She is one of the coordinators of the application of Estonia to join the Arctic Council as an observer and will deliver a speech about Estonia’s vision of the Arctic policy.
We kindly request you to send your abstract (up to 300 words) to Aimar.Ventsel@ut.ee by the 20th of March 2020.
Our colleagues Gunhild Hoogensen Gjorv with Marc Lanteigne launched the Routledge Handbook of Arctic Security, of which they are the main editors, and where there are some chapters relevant for (and co-authored by) us. Gunhild said that the starting point for their approach to security is much broader than just hard dominant state approaches to security, focusing on security that matters to people on the ground. The basics is that feeling secure is first and foremost being free from worry. I think in this definition security as a concept is related pretty closely to well-being, another of our focuses. It would be interesting to explore the connections between the two more explicitly. The book has 42 authors, of which seven were at the launch during the Arctic Frontiers conference 2020 in Tromso. The contributions cover the whole range of security issues connected to the Arctic Council, communities and extractive industries, indigenous theoretical approaches to security, legal reform and security in Russia, and in all other Arctic countries, energy security, peace, and many other relevant topics.
The editors launching the book at the Arctic Frontiers 2020 conference in Tromso
Our colleagues from the library have alerted us to their colloquium, which is this year about the participation of knowledge-holders in the sharing and archiving practices that have transformed the role of libraries. Please see this announcement. The meeting is from 7-13 June 2020 in Quebec city. https://www.fourwav.es/view/1500/info/
All information professionals are invited to the Colloquy. Proposals on other subjects related to northern or polar information will also be considered.
Abstract:
Do librarians and archivists have a significant role in sharing Indigenous and non-Indigenous northern cultures? Do they still have a real impact in 2019 on the transmission of knowledge related to the polar world? How can the physical and virtual spaces of libraries and archive centres remain, in the era of information and communication technologies, essential places for sharing cultures and knowledge about the North and the Poles? The organizers invite you to submit papers on projects, services or thoughts related to these issues. Within the context of libraries and archives, the following sub-themes could be addressed:
Cultural exchanges and connections between Indigenous and non-Indigenous northern communities.
Transmission of Indigenous and non-Indigenous northern traditional knowledge and practices.
First Nations involvement in information management, preservation or dissemination.
Reconciliation and decolonization of libraries and archives.
Enhancement of heritage documents related to polar cultures and knowledge.
Popularization of major social and environmental issues and democratization of scientific knowledge related to northern or polar territories.
Establishing a culture of data preservation and sharing among northern or polar researchers.
Interdisciplinary and intersectoral management of research data on northern or polar territories.
Contributions from libraries or archive centres to foster the practice of interdisciplinarity in research on northern and polar territories.
This was one of the guiding topics discussed at the session hosted by our WOLLIE project during the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conference 2019. On the one hand, the session served as a meeting spot for all the project members, to introduce their preliminary results to a broader audience. On the other hand, we engaged more broadly with concepts and debates in Arctic youth research.
These were the introductory words of Alexandr Ivanov, the head of the Olenek district in Yakutia, in his discussion during our session on indigenous people’s territorial governance under industrial development at the Northern Forum for sustainable development in Yakutsk, 25 – 26 September 2019 (full session programme).
practicing governance on the land: herding reindeer through a gold deposit in Neryungryi District, Yakutia
He thought it is useful to remind researchers from any field and country that there is a tendency in scholarship to portray indigenous life in the Russian Arctic as a struggle for survival, rather than a quest for harnessing opportunities, achieve well-being and happiness, and just living at home. This stems from the old idea that the Arctic is a resource frontier with a tough climate rather than home for people. Social scientists doing Arctic Studies have acknowledged this long ago, and published on it before. Continue reading “We don’t survive – we live here!”→
Arctic Science Summit Week 2020, Akureyri, Iceland, 29-30(TBC) March 2020
funded by IASC – the International Arctic Science Committee
The IASC Social Sciences and Humanities Working Group (WG), together with IASC’s Cryosphere, Marine, and Terrestrial WGs, invites you to a unique cross-disciplinary workshop attempting to bring together the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities in order to discuss and reflect on the gendered nature of Polar research.
The workshop will combine three strands of debate that have thus far not been discussed systematically: (1) Doing science in the 21st century in a way that departs from but also pays careful attention to the history of exploration and colonial endeavours as “heroic” and masculine activities – while a masculine image still seems to dominate the methodologies and practices of Arctic and Polar research. (2) The still existing gender gap when it comes to female researchers in hard sciences, their career prospects, and their sometimes difficult working conditions as women in the field. Critiques of the gender gap and gendered research work have thus far neglected the diversity aspects of queer and gender minority (LGBTQI) researchers. They face particular challenges while working in a still largely heteronormative research environment as it is described for research stations, vessels or tundra/taiga camps. (3) The gendered composition of researchers as actors and the gendered spaces of conducting research, including the field sites, have an important impact on research interests, research design, research ethics and epistemology. The gender bias affects the research subject and methodology, and Polar research can learn from and communicate with other fields of science about how to ensure a high standard of equality, sensitivity to issues of marginalization, and ethical production of science.
We invite participants of the ASSW 2020 from natural and social sciences to pop by at the workshop and to join the discussions and break-out groups. Participants will be engaged through alternative formats to gain a maximum of knowledge exchange as well as to map out the state of the art and ideas about where to go from there.
We invite abstracts for a great variety of contributions in conversation with the three themes outlined above: besides as a set of classic academic papers (15 min) and short inputs (5 min) (e.g. sharing experiences or introducing NGOs and movements).
In particular, the workshop facilitates discussions and break-out group work for examining pressing issues in the thematic fields based on individual, group and scholarly experience and activism. Audiovisual or artistic contributions are very welcome. Also join us for volunteering as an organiser of a break-out group.
We can fund a limited number of participants up to 800 euros each. Priority will be given to early-career researchers. Please, indicate your financial need in your message to us.
For more information see IASSA Working Group Gender in the Arctic
Colleagues from Russia put together a really interesting programme to revisit the relation of anthropology and history, particularly in Russia and post-socialist countries. Their summer school announcement sounds very attractive, including possible travel grants to the school venue in Tyumen, Russia, plus free accomodation and meals. If you are interested, contact our friend Nikolay Ssorin Chaikov (nssorinchaikov(at)hse.ru) or visit the summer school website
On April 16-17, 2019 at Arctic Centre, Rovaniemi, Finland, Anna Stammler-Gossmann organised a a workshop with the title above at the Arctic Centre, for which you can check the agenda (Ice_law_meeting_201904_agenda). The event was supported by the Leverhulme Trust (ICE LAW: Indeterminate and Changing Environments: Law, the Anthropocene, and the World, University of Durham, UK). As part of the event, they organised a public fish-cutting workshop called “Knowledge to Knowledge: Different techniques of knife sharpening and fish skinning, conducted by Eero Pajula and Ayonghe Akonwi Nebasifu”.
Ayonghe Nebasifu and Eero Pajula sharing their way of fish-cutting. Photo: F. Stammler
One striking difference in the way they cut the fish (here: a rainbow trout), was the amount of fish that goes to rubbish when you focus on getting the filet pieces out separately (in the picture the right side with the rubbish in the plastic box). Nabasifu’s way focuses on the maximum use of all parts of the fish. Even the back fin is prepared for consumption: “if you fry it, it gets nice and crunchy, he said.”
This workshop was a nice example of how we co-produce and share knowledge through the joint experience of practice. Thanks to Anna Stammler Gossmann for organising this.
