News archive

We are thrilled to share that one of our PhD candidates, Polina Smirnova, has contributed to an academic article recently published in the Arctic Yearbook 2024! The article, titled "Co-creating Arctic Futures: Perspectives from Emerging Leaders on Youth Leadership and Inclusive Governance," is a collaborative interdisciplinary effort by scholars from Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States.

As the Arctic faces unprecedented environmental and climate changes, this paper emphasizes the importance of inclusive governance and intergenerational leadership. It draws from the experiences of Emerging Leaders from the Circumpolar Arctic and Subarctic, who gathered in Northern Norway in January 2024 to participate in the Arctic Frontiers Conference. The article explores the role of youth leadership in Arctic governance and highlights the need for diverse perspectives to shape a sustainable and just future for the Arctic. It addresses the concept of “youthwashing” and offers actionable recommendations for fostering inclusive decision-making.

We encourage everyone interested in Arctic governance, youth leadership, and sustainable development to read this paper. You can access the full article from:

https://arcticyearbook.com/arctic-yearbook/2024/2024-scholarly-papers/519-co-creating-arctic-futures-perspectives-from-emerging-leaders-on-youth-leadership-and-inclusive-governance

Our PhD candidates Bahar Kucuk and Alexandra Abrahams participated in the Green Shift in the Blue Food Sector Workshop as part of the CoastShift research project in collaboration with Arctic Frontiers.

CoastShift is a five-year project running from 2022 to 2026 under the FRAM Center, involving nine collaborating institutes dedicated to exploring sustainable opportunities for food production in northern Norway.

The workshop brought together researchers, students, and industry representatives to discuss the future of sustainable ocean-based food production in Northern Norway. Participants engaged in small group discussions focused on fisheries and aquaculture, sharing their ideas and visions for the future of blue food systems with an aim to explore possible directions for future sustainable ocean-based food production in Northern Norway.

The insights and results from the workshop will contribute to scenario development for supporting industry and management efforts toward a green transition. These findings will be included in a comprehensive report from the CoastShift research program.

To learn more about the CoastShift project, visit:

https://framsenteret.no/forskning/coastshift-area-use-sustainability-and-increased-food-production/

The Arctic Five has appointed 16 new Arctic Five Chairs to enhance research and educational collaborations in the Fennoscandinavian Arctic from 2024 to 2026. This initiative, involving UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, University of Lapland, Umeå University, University of Oulu, and Luleå University of Technology, focuses on building and strengthening alliances.

We are proud to announce that Professor Tiina Ikäheimo, one of our esteemed steering group members, has been appointed as one of the Arctic Five Chairs. Congratulations to her!

Four of our PhD candidates, Polina Smirnova, Mojdeh Rafieian, Kristina Roset, and Alexandra Abrahams, actively participated in the Arctic Congress 2024 in Bodø. This unique event combined the International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS) XI, UArctic Congress 2024, and High North Dialogue 2024, featuring high-level plenary sessions, parallel sessions, networking activities, and social and cultural events.

Bringing these three conferences together in Bodø was an extraordinary showcase of Arctic cooperation, aligning with sustainability goals such as reducing CO2 emissions and increasing partnerships. The congress focused on four themes: People of the North, Sustainable Economic Development, Climate and Environment, and Oceans.

Our candidates made significant contributions and gained valuable insights from the conference. Mojdeh and Polina presented their research, Alexandra participated in the poster sessions, and Kristina enhanced her knowledge on institutional ethnography. Additionally, Polina took part in a scenario planning workshop for the Arctic, organized by High North Dialogue. This workshop aims to create a learning platform to share knowledge and facilitate networking for young, ambitious individuals interested in societal development in the High North.

We are thrilled for our PhD candidates' active involvement and impactful contributions at the Arctic Congress Bodø 2024, demonstrating their commitment to advancing Arctic research and collaboration.

The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver engaging talks on the latest science and research discoveries in an accessible and fun format for the public. Run by volunteers and established by a community of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers, this festival brings science to everyone. It occurs all over the world, including five cities across Norway: Tromsø, Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Stavanger.

One of our PhD candidates, Alexandra Abrahams, gave a captivating presentation on "Transformative Change Towards Sustainable Blue Food Systems" at the "Sustainable Harvest" session during the Tromsø 2024 Pint of Science event.

It is a great contribution to making complex scientific topics accessible and engaging for the broader community, we look forward to all our candidates’ contributions in upcoming years!

Following our PhD candidate Larry Ibrahim Mohammed's participation in the Arctic Frontiers Conference and Emerging Leaders program in 2023, two other PhD candidates from the Changing Arctic Research School, Colin Sinclair and Polina Smirnova, joined the program for 2024. Arctic Frontiers Emerging Leaders is an early-career and mentoring program in the Arctic for young professionals from the academic, industry, and policy sectors. The program brings together young leaders from the academic, business, public, and NGO sectors to learn about the Arctic in a thrilling journey through Northern Norway.

The 2024 "Actions and Reactions" program included a trip through the Norwegian high north landscape, from Bodø to Lofoten to Tromsø. Along the way, the participants met with local representatives from different sectors and engaged in timely discussions on current visions, trends, and challenges in the Arctic. During the ongoing conference, our PhD candidate Polina Smirnova was hosted by Radio Arctic in an episode focusing on opportunities for Arctic youth, where she discussed her research on mobilities and security in the changing Arctic region. Watch the conversation from: https://lnkd.in/dK8dkEMF

In 2023, when participating in the Emerging Leaders program, our PhD candidate Larry Ibrahim Mohammed had the opportunity to speak at one of the Big Picture Sessions at the Arctic Frontiers “Moving To and From North” conference. He shared his experiences as an international resident in Norway, delving into strategies to retain young people in the Arctic and the challenges associated with that goal. The session can be watched from: https://www.youtube.com/live/pnHvukITy74?feature=shared

We look forward to their continued success in advocating for and contributing to the Arctic region's future!

We are delighted to share that three of our PhD candidates; Larry Ibrahim Mohammed, Nikolaos Gkikas, and Claudia Cheng made significant contributions at COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, representing UiT.

The conference brought the world together at a critical moment for global transformative climate action. In addition, UiT has entered into a collaboration with Michigan Technological University in the USA and the University of Sussex in the UK. Together, the three universities established the pavilion: "Just north and beyond: A pop-up University".

Our candidates had successfully participated in panel discussions and gave pop-up lectures in the pavilion. Their contributions spanned topics such as energy transitions, blue justice, indigenous perspectives on renewable energy, and human rights.

As UiT Changing Arctic Research Group continues to advocate for meaningful change in international climate action, we applaud the impactful contributions of Larry Ibrahim Mohammed, Nikolaos Gkikas, and Claudia Cheng at COP28!

We are delighted to share that five of our PhD candidates; Polina Smirnova, Colin Sinclair, Gilbert Ajabe Akame, Mojdeh Rafieian, and Bahar Kucuk, successfully attended a very inspiring Winter School in Nice, France on December 5-6, 2023, hosted by Universite Cote d'Azur, financed by HORIZON Europe. A total of thirty-two PhD candidates elected from the seven partner universities within the DocTalent4EU consortium (Universite Cote d'Azur (France), University of Porto - Uporto (Portugal), Universidad de Alcala (Spain), University of Limerick (Ireland), Western University of Applied Sciences (Norway), Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi (Romania), and UiT The Arctic University of Norway) came together in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams to undertake the course on Enhancing Communication and Negotiation Skills for PhD candidates.

The Winter School provided a great platform for collaborative learning and skill development consisting of a blended structure with an open online module with videos, articles, and both online and on-site group activities. It aimed to enhance the abilities to communicate the research effectively, to negotiate effectively in academic and professional settings, and to understand the role of such competencies in advancing the research and doctoral careers.

Within this very intense two-day on-site workshop, our PhD candidates had the chance to build great networking, discuss case studies, cooperate in teams to apply, and train what was learned, and go through interactive challenges from role-plays to simulations addressing climate change, with the support of talented researchers and industry representatives.

We are glad that our candidates had a great learning experience, and we look forward them to represent the UiT Changing Arctic Research School in alike platforms in future as well!

'You know, sometimes the world seems so pointlessly noisy to me. As if the essence of things is lost somewhere in the definitions and theories that we create to describe these very things…’, says Nikolaos, in his short movie.

Our PhD candidate Nikolaos Gkikas has released his short movie ‘Black Letter Stains’ which he also presented at the 2023 Critical Legal Conference held at Durham, England!

This thought-provoking short film reflects the value of simplicity and critiques the overwhelming complexity, redundancy, and chase of recognition in academic discourse. The film portrays a sense of disillusionment with the current state of academia, where theories endlessly repeat the same with different words to claim originality and academic prestige.

To watch 'Black Letter Stains' and delve into Nikolaos’s insightful perspective, visit https://vimeo.com/862715481

We celebrate Nikolaos’s creative contribution and his critical examination of academic culture through this film and look forward to see more!

ARCADE project is led by the Center for Arctic Studies in collaboration with the Sustainability Institute of the University of Iceland, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Ilisimatusarfik - University of Greenland and partners with the Arctic Initiative at Harvard‘s Kennedy School of Government and the Arctic Circle.

Our candidates participated in three intensive programs in Norway, Greenland, and Iceland where they engaged in a curriculum that emphasized innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to meet the challenge of the fast-changing Arctic, gaining valuable tools to influence policymakers and present their research to both the media and the general public.

One of the important highlights is that they had the chance to present in the 2023 Arctic Circle Assembly held at Reykjavik, Iceland! We look forward to seeing their continued contributions to Arctic research and leadership.

We are pleased to share that Larry Ibrahim Mohammed, one of our PhD candidates, has authored an insightful commentary on the fate of scientific and cultural collaborations for young people in the Arctic. His article, published on The Arctic Institute's website, under the Arctic Collaboration Series 2023, discusses the impact of current geopolitical tensions on Arctic cooperation and highlights the importance of maintaining cross-border collaborations for young people.

You can read the full commentary here: https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/where-do-we-go-from-here-fate-scientific-cultural-collaborations-young-people-arctic/

We applaud Larry's contribution to this critical discussion on sustaining Arctic partnerships and fostering international cooperation.