Cambridge Arctic teaching position open

Posted on March 18, 2019 by

Our colleagues from the Scott Polar Research Institute search for an Arctic human geography teacher for supervising their undergraduate and masters students. The funding is fixed term for 30 months. If someone is interested in working for one of the world’s top universities – this is a rare chance in our field. See here the announcement: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/20663/  The application deadline is 16 April. If you are considering to apply and want to find out some preliminary information on SPRI or life in Cambridge, talk or write to Florian.

Posted in All, Announcements, jobs, teaching | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Do animal livelihoods in the Arctic suffer from global warming?

Posted on March 14, 2019 by

This was one of the questions covered in an interdisciplinary exhibition on the effects of global warming and melting permafrost in Yakutia, on display in the Hokkaido museum of northern peoples. The exhibition with the title Thawing Earth – Global Warming in Central Yakutia is a nice example of co-production of knowledge between natural and social scientists and outreach experts, in a Japanese research project entitled “Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS)”. Organisers Atsushi Nakada from the Hokkaido Museum and Hiroki Takakura from the Centre for Northeast Asian Studies in Japan connected the available science evidence on climate change in Central Yakutia with practitioners’ knowledge on the effects. For a western visitor to the

IMG_20190313_121442

these bumps are one of the reasons of less grazing land available for hay-making

Continue reading →

Posted in All, Arctic Ark: Human-animal relations, Fieldwork, Indigenous Peoples, Russian North | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cambridge job offer, Russian Arctic Studies

Posted on March 11, 2019 by

Today we pass on the job advert of colleagues at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge. They search for a new person responsible for the world’s top Russian Arctic science library outside of Russia. The SPRI Russian library is really unique, I can tell from my own studies there. They have almost everything, and their catalogue also includes english abstracts of Russian books, which is extremely helpful. The library has a lot of ethnography and anthropology of the Russian Arctic. Anyone interested can apply, here the text of colleague Piers Vitebsky below:

“… the Russian section of the library might become a mammoth – huge and mighty, but stuck in permafrost and not evolving.  But I’m very happy to say that the institute is now advertising for a replacement Russian bibliographer.  The deadline is 24 March and the link to the advert is:
The position combines expertise in both Russian and bibliography.  I have asked and been told that a good scholarly knowledge of Russian (for example through experience of using library sources for one’s own research) is more essential than a formal qualification in librarianship.  Though this is not specified in the advert, it seems that knowledge of the Russian North, and/or of sourcing material from Russian publishers, would also be a clear advantage.
I have also been told that the university should be able to appoint the most suitable person regardless of nationality.  This opens the way to applications from continental Europe, North America and Russia too.  (Obviously, fluent English will also be essential.)
We all know that this is one of the world’s key positions for supporting research on Siberia and the Russian North, and will want to make sure that really good people apply.”
Posted in All, Indigenous Peoples, jobs, Russian North | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Domestication revisited?

Posted on February 23, 2019 by

Domestication is by most used as a term for the biologically traceable subordination of animals under human control. But anthropologists have for long argued that there are also social definitions of domestication. Very influential was the one by Tim Ingold (2000), who classified domestication as either characterise between a relation of trust or a relation of domination between humans and animals. A distinguished group of researchers spent two days at a conference in very creative and intellectually demanding talks about this issue.

IMG_8899

from left to right: Shiaki Kondo, Shiro Sasaki, David Anderson, Hiroki Takakura, Juha Kantanen, Hugh Beach, Florian Stammler, Aytalina Ivanova, Yuka Oishi, Charles Stepanoff

The event was hosted by Tohoku University in Japan (see here for a programme), and co-organised by Director Hiroki Takakura together with Florian Stammler. In combination, we are happy that we managed to have invited some of the principal contributors of recent debates on domestication from various disciplines. In a way the meeting was partly like a continuation of debates that we had at recent seminars of the Finnish Academy’s Arktiko programme in November 2011, and then at the ArcArk final seminar in Rovaniemi in December 2018.

It was remarkable that all the recent re-considerations by these scholars that became prominent in more recent years agreed on several points and argued for overcoming the dichotomy between trust and domination. So what do David Anderson’s et al (2017) idea Continue reading →

Posted in All, Arctic Ark: Human-animal relations, conferences, Theoretical Issues | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Saami rights lecture, Rovaniemi

Posted on February 6, 2019 by

Our colleague Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi will give a lecture this Friday at 13.15 at the University of Lapland main building, with a title that would sound in english something like “rights and obligations of the Saami community”. Klemetti served as the speaker of the Finnish Saami parliament and has a PhD in anthropology. The lecture is going to be in Finnish (I see that this limits the listeners in this forum). Fore Finnish speakers outside of Rovaniemi, it will be possible to listen at https://connect.eoppimispalvelut.fi/saam0103/

If someone would go and comment on this here at the blog, it would be great.

Posted in All, Announcements, Fennoscandia, Indigenous Peoples, Sámi | Leave a comment

Job for Arctic Anthropologists in Europe? Oulu

Posted on December 20, 2018 by

The University of Oulu is strengthening their Arctic profile and have announced several jobs. Let’s hope they will hire anthropologists eagerly! It depends on how many good anthropologists will apply, so, dear colleagues – go for it!

Tenure Track Positions in Arctic Interactions Research, University of Oulu, Finland
Are you the new generation of premier Arctic scientists with ambition for strengthening your international experience? Do you want to make new discoveries that are vital for the sustainability of the Arctic environment and our whole planet?

We are now looking for excellent and enthusiastic scientists from various research fields to join our Arctic Interactions (ArcI) research community at the University of Oulu. ArcI is a multidisciplinary research effort aimed at creating understanding and mitigating global change in the Arctic by bridging different research disciplines within natural, social and technical sciences. This international and globally significant research hub will produce new discoveries and cutting-edge research that will help solve some of the most pressing societal challenges in the Arctic.

Research areas

Our three main research themes (RT) include 1) Global change & northern environments, 2) Human-environmental relationship, and 3) Sustainable systems, resource use and development. Within these research themes we are offering tenure track positions in five different research areas:

• Biodiversity change and ecosystem health (RT1)

• Earth system sciences, ecohydrology and human societal resiliency (RT1)

• Cultural histories and traditional knowledge of resource use (RT2)

• Resource management in Arctic environment (RT3)

• Arctic architecture and environmental adaptation (RT3)

The tenure track positions are open to highly talented scientists with excellent potential for a successful scientific career. We invite strong candidates from various scientific fields, such as hydrology, ecology, biology, geography, geology, paleoclimatology, environmental sciences, environmental engineering, civil engineering, architecture, social sciences, archeology, cultural studies etc. Based on your experience and competence, you can be placed at the level of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor or Distinguished Professor. The positions include a start-up package for hiring a postdoctoral fellow and a PhD student.

What we offer

We are a dedicated and dynamic group of scientists working together towards a more sustainable and intelligent future. Our university’s long traditions in Arctic research and location close to the Arctic offer unique conditions for doing research. Currently, the ArcI community include 30 senior scientists with versatile expertise and background, which creates an inspiring working environment full of opportunities for wide variety of research. We foster a culture of collaboration, both within our university and with our international partner universities.

About Oulu

The City of Oulu is Northern Finland’s largest and oldest city, with a population of over 200,000. Oulu offers an easy-going living environment with good connections from anywhere. As the world’s northernmost tech hub, Oulu has a highly educated and innovative workforce, thanks to one of the biggest and most multidisciplinary universities in Finland.

How to apply

Please submit your application and relevant enclosures through our online recruitment system latest on February 28 2019. Please follow the links on the list of research areas to find individual position descriptions.

More information

Director: Prof. Bjørn Kløve, Kvantum Institute, University of Oulu, bjorn.klove(at)oulu.fi

Vice Director: Prof. Jeffrey Welker, Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu,

jeffrey.welker(at)oulu.fi

Coordinator: Jouko Inkeröinen, Kvantum Institute, University of Oulu, jouko.inkeroinen(at)oulu.fi

http://www.oulu.fi/arci

 

Posted in All, Announcements, Arctic Ark: Human-animal relations, Extractive Industries, Fennoscandia, jobs | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Job: Arctic Sustainability, resilience and climate change

Posted on December 20, 2018 by

Fancy a career in Canada? If your are suitably qualified, you can try this one. They claim they want a special focus on indigenous knowledge too:

SSHRC CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR TIER 2
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN ARCTIC SUSTAINABILITY, RESILIENCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba invites applications for a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 2, a tenure track position at the rank of assistant professor, in the broad social science fields of Indigenous knowledge-Western science integration, community resilience, co-management, Arctic environmental economics, sustainability, or Arctic economic geography. The Government of Canada has established the CRC program to enable Canadian universities to foster world class research excellence. The proposed CRC aligns with the University’s strategic research plan that identifies Arctic System Science and Climate Change as a targeted area.

For more information please visit https://viprecprod.ad.umanitoba.ca/DEFAULT.ASPX?REQ_ID=05392

Posted in All, Announcements, Indigenous Peoples, jobs, North American North | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment