The Læra Institute is excited to announce our first-ever undergraduate student symposium: 'Being Circumpolar'. We invite students from any UArctic member university anywhere in the world to join us for this symposium in three parts — three session, three speakers, three topics and three conversations. It's a chance to contribute your perspective on the Circumpolar North, on studying Circumpolar Studies at university — and especially on what it means to 'be Circumpolar' in today's fractured world.
Our three-part symposium timetable follows the three overarching UArctic Circumpolar Studies themes:
Peoples and Cultures — Monday 20th November 2023 at 13.00 UTC — Film, culture and language: A conversation with Liisa Holmberg, film commissioner with the International Sámi Film Institute and the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, Norway, and a member of the Sámiráđđi/Saami Council. Discuss the landscape of film, culture and language for Circumpolar peoples from her perspective as a Sámi filmmaker.
Lands and Environments — Wednesday 22nd November 2023 at 16.30 UTC — Polar bear and the politics of climate change in the Canadian Arctic: A conversation with Tristan Pearce, Associate Professor of Northern Studies and Research Chair in Cumulative Impacts of Environmental Change at the University of Northern British Columbia. Discuss the consequences to the Inuvialuit people of the western Canadian Arctic of the 2008 US listing of the polar bear as a threatened species.
Contemporary Issues — Friday 24th November 2023 at 19.00 UTC — The end of 'Arctic exceptionalism'? Geopolitical competition and the contemporary Circumpolar Arctic: A conversation with P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Research Chair in the Study of Northern Canada at Trent University, and Lead of the North American Arctic Defense and Security Network. Discuss the implications of resurgent strategic competition on the Arctic states, Indigenous peoples and regional governance of the Circumpolar North.
You can take part in as many or as few of these sessions as you wish. Register for each session separately:
- 20th November with Liisa Holmberg: https://is.gd/1People
- 22nd November with Tristan Pearce: https://is.gd/2Lands
- 24th November with P. Whitney Lackenbauer: https://is.gd/3Issues
We look very much forward to welcoming you to our first Læra Institute student symposium, 'Being Circumpolar'. Join us and meet your fellow students from around the Circumpolar North, and from around the world!
