A WEEK OF EXCHANGE: ETHICS AND METHODS IN ARCTIC TRANSFORMATIVE RESEARCH
03.-06.10.2023, Oulu, Finland
Organizers: Concept and administration
Photo by Mark König on Unsplash
Stephan Dudeck, Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Germany
Stephan Dudeck is an anthropologist, who has practices solidarity with Indigenous friends resisting extractivism in Western Siberia since being a student in the 1990ies. His reflection on the methods of collaborative and co-creative research are rooted in practices of learning by doing with Khanty and Nenets teachers. How to take responsibility for this gift of shared knowledge especially in times, where long grown connections with the Russian Arctic are severed and circumpolar collaboration fractured bothers him much.
At the moment he is working at the Institute of Cultural Research, University of Tartu, Estonia, at the Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) Helmholtz Centre, Potsdam and the Foundation for Siberian Cultures, Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany and is member of the Anthropology Research Team, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland
Nina Döring, Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Germany
Nina Döring works as research group leader of the Arctic Governance Group at the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS) in Germany. Her interests are focused around co-creation/ co-production of knowledge, ethics, and decolonial approaches to research. Nina is particularly concerned about how she can effect change in her own practices and those of the institute she works at to contribute to more ethical and equitable relationships in research across knowledge systems.
Charleen Fisher, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA
Dr. Daazhraii Charleen Fisher is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Fisher has significant experience in primary, intermediate, secondary education and maintains a current teaching and principal endorsement in Alaska and Hawaii (teaching only). As the former, Federal Programs Director for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District she has considerable administrative experience in K-12. She is the former Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (CATG) Executive Director. Dr. Fisher worked to indigenize capacity development management structures and incorporated Indigenous values and practices into the day-to-day operations of CATG. Dr. Fisher also participates indigenous program evaluation for CATG. Dr. Fisher also writes grants for multiple organizations in the area of Indigenous language revitalization. Charleen graduated with a BA in Political Science, M.Ed. in Education and has an Indigenous Studies PhD. Dr. Fisher currently serves on multiple statewide boards in Alaska including the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute of Alaska, the Alaska Humanities Forum and Doyon Ltd.
Thora Herrmann, University of Oulu, Finland
Thora Herrmann is a Professor of socio-environmental sustainability within the Biodiverse Anthropocenes Research Programme at the University of Oulu, Finland. She collaborates with First Nations, Inuit and Sámi communities and organizations in action-research projects on human-environment interactions, socio-ecological changes in polar regions, community-based environmental monitoring, and biocultural approaches to conservation. She has a strong interest in art-based methodologies, working with community filmmaking and photovoice, and also interactive mapping. She strongly advocates for decolonial and co-creative research methodologies and for inclusive collaborations in research.
Aslak Holmberg, Sámiráđđi / Saami Council, Sápmi
Aslak Holmberg is the president of the Saami Council, which is the largest and oldest international Indigenous Sámi organisation. The Saami council works with matters such as human rights, Indigenous knowledge, culture and environmental policy. He has for the past decade worked with Sámi and Indigenous issues through NGO:s, the Sámi parliament in Finland, as well as through activism and academia. Mr. Holmberg is a fisher, teacher, and holds a master’s degree in Indigenous studies. Indigenous rights and knowledge are at the core of his work in various fields.
Evie Morin, Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Germany
Evie Morin is a research associate with the Arctic Governance research group at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS). Her main project is DÁVGI: Co-Creation for Biocultural Diversity in the Arctic, which aims to provide a basis for the exchange of knowledge and expertise to improve collaboration between Indigenous rights holders, environmental and other non-governmental organizations, local stakeholders, researchers, and policy makers in order to strengthen the conservation and restoration of biocultural diversity in the Arctic. Evie has also worked as a Planning Associate at EcoPlan International since 2019, where she supports Indigenous self-governance and the development of good working relationships between Indigenous and non-indigenous governments.
Olga Lukyanova, Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Germany
Olga is a project assistant at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS), where she supports projects in Arctic Governance and Ocean Governance teams.
Arne Riedel, Ecologic Institute, Germany
Arne Riedel is a Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, a think tank for environmental policy in Berlin, Germany. At Ecologic Institute, he coordinates the Legal and Arctic Teams, and works on Arctic environmental governance, as well as in the climate negotiations under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. In these contexts, Mr. Riedel works with Indigenous partners on co-creation of knowledge as well as on participation. He is a licensed attorney at law in Germany and holds a master’s degree in EU Law (Uni Nottingham)
Silja Zimmermann, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Silja Zimmermann is a biogeographer and conservation ecologist working at the Centre for Complex Systems Studies and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. In her PhD research, she works on sustainability transformations within Arctic food systems. Her research involves the active engagement of Arctic Indigenous communities as she tries to show how complex systems studies combines with transdisciplinary approaches can lead to actual changes on the ground.
Organizers: Sessions
Naja Dyrendom Graugaard
Naja Dyrendom Graugaard is a Danish-Kalaaleq postdoctoral researcher at the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, Denmark. Naja’s research focuses on (de)colonial relations between Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and Denmark, Inuit knowledge and stories, and decolonizing and Indigenizing research methodologies in the Arctic. Besides her research, Naja also engages in different forms of public dissemination on Nordic colonial histories through debates, workshop facilitation, creative writing, and performative engagements.
Shelly Elverum, Ikaarvik, Canada
Shelly Elverum is engaging Inuit youth to reclaim their roles as the Arctic’s first scientists, capable of managing resources, determining their cultural and economic futures, and adapting to rapid climate and cultural change in the North. Shelly is a Fellow of the RCGS and an Ashoka Changemaker, a recipient of the Governor’s General for Innovation, and a double laureate of the Arctic Inspiration Prize (Ikaarvik 2013, SmartICE 2016).
Contributors
Rauna Kuokkanen
Rauna Kuokkanen (Sámi) is Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Studies at the University of Lapland and Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. Her most recent book is the award-winning Restructuring Relations: Indigenous Self-Determination, Governance and Gender (Oxford UP, 2019), an Indigenous feminist investigation of Indigenous self-determination, governance and gender regimes in Indigenous political institutions. She is also the author of Boaris dego eana: Eamiálbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan (in Sámi; translated title: As Old as the Earth. Indigenous Knowledge, Philosophies and Research, 2009). Her book Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes and the Logic of the Gift (2007) develops an Indigenous, poststructural critique of the contemporary university. Professor Kuokkanen has recently published on the energy transition, wind industry, and reindeer herding in Norway, truth and reconciliation process in Finland, and Nordic settler colonialism. She is from Ohcejohka/Utsjoki, Sápmi, but previously lived and worked in Canada for nearly 20 years.
The Week of Exchange is hosted by:
