Proposed Sessions | Page 3

Enabling well-being of older residents in the Arctic

Affiliation: University of Oulu | Country: Finland | Organizer(s): Anastasia Emelyanova, Elena Golubeva

The Arctic region is no difference from the world in terms of on-going population ageing. This process transforms society in many ways. Arctic generations of older people being enlarging in numbers bring opportunities yet posing new challenges to the societal system. In this session, we aim to learn various aspects of Arctic older residents’ health and well-being. We invite research papers exploring the past and future demographics, healthy lifestyles, supportive living arrangements, seniors’ health care, innovative practices for boosting life cycle well-being, and relevant policy initiatives.

This session is supported by the UArctic Thematic Network on Health and Well-being, and projcts "Northern Dimension Institute Think Tank action" and "Indigenous and non-indigenous residents of the Nordic-Russian region: Best practices for equity in healthy ageing (NORRUS-AGE)".

Epidemics in the Arctic - past excperiences of infectious diseases

Affiliation: ARCUM - Arctic Research Centre at Umeå University | Country: Sweden | Organizer(s): Peter Sköld

The Arctic has been struck by pandemics for a long time. Plague reached the northern hemisphere, later smallpox was a great killer, cholera was introduced, tuberculosis was and still is a devastating disease, and various influenza pandemics have raged in the Arctic, worst of them all the 1918-1920 pandemic, the Spanish flu Measles, polio, HIV/AIDS, the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 have all struck the Arctic before the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic. The experiences from previous pandemics offer important learnings for today.

The Arctic is a most heterogenous region with great differences when it comes to life-expectancy, infant mortality, access to health care, settlement structures, and seasonal activity levels. Climate and environment are extreme (temperature and precipitation have a great impact on the infectious diseases.), and Arctic and sub-Arctic populations live in markedly different social and physical environments including time spent indoors, amplifying the effects of household crowding, smoking and inadequate ventilation on the person-to-person spread of infectious diseases.

The Arctic experiences of past epidemics and pandemics, and how they can be transformed into new knowledge that assist in the strengthening of pandemic preparedness. Epidemics can be addressed in many different ways, possible topics include but is not restricted to:

remoteness & immunity
the epidemiologic transition
indigenous knowledge systems and experiences
health care organization
epidemiologic pathways
governance
communication & information
equality
vaccination
community-based pandemic planning, and data & projection

Exploring the isolated or island phenomenon in the Arctic: boundaries, metaphors and languages of description

Affiliation: HSE University (St. Petersburg, Russia, NARFU (Arkhangelsk, Russia) | Country: Russia | Organizer(s): Lidia Rakhmanova, Olga Russova

The purpose of this panel discussion is to redefine the boundaries and criteria defining community /territory as ""island"". The metaphor of ""islands"" is interpreted differently in various scientific fields, according to a specific disciplinary language. The reasons why a community may be in an ""island position"" are diverse and are rooted in geographical features, landscape changes, revision of administrative delineation, collapse of infrastructures, destruction of enterprises, changes in the community structure and its identity. Thus, completely different fields and territories may be considered as island cases. We aim to find methodological intersections and commonalities of descriptive languages to reflex the phenomenon of ""island"" in an interdisciplinary field of Arctic research. What is the peculiarity and difficulty of studying them? What should we consider from the point of view of anthropology, sociology, and economic geography? How to overcome the metaphorization of the ""island"" position by comparing the cases of marine archipelagoes, isolated cities, taiga settlements and entire regions?"

Focus on indigenous peoples and East Asian Observer states to the Arctic Council

Affiliation: UiT The Arctic University of Norway | Country: Norway | Organizer(s): Aileen A. Espiritu, Marc Lanteigne, Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv

One of the major prerequisites for Observer status with the Arctic Council was that Observers “Respect the values, interests, culture and traditions of Arctic indigenous peoples and other Arctic inhabitants.” (Observers, Arctic Council) We argue this is one of the most challenging prerequisites to
fulfill for the East Asian observer states, especially considering their own histories with their own indigenous peoples, especially China. (Sun, 2014) Thus, it is of great importance that we explore how East Asian states are grappling with questions posed to them by indigenous peoples both in the Arctic Council and in indigenous communities in the Arctic. The ambitions, actions, and future infrastructure development interests by Asian and European states in cooperation with the Arctic Eight states will have great impacts on indigenous peoples living in the Arctic and their environments. It is vital that within the Arctic- Asia relationship, the voices of indigenous peoples are brought to the forefront and not sidelined. We already see such potential challenges in the discussions about building of the railroad between Rovaniemi and Kirkenes purportedly with some Chinese financing (Saami Council 2018). Chinese investment on Greenland are also sources of much controversy and discussion that need more study and analysis (Lanteigne and Shi 2019; Lucht, 2018). Such cases will become more prevalent as both Arctic and Asian states increase shipping through Arctic waters and as the infrastructure for such activities are built in indigenous areas.

Food (in)Security in the Arctic

Affiliation: Umeå University | Country: Sweden | Organizer(s): Lena Maria Nilsson, Thora Herrmann, Kamrul Hossein

This session addresses the issues of food security amongst the Arctic population, from a multidimensional perspective. The environmental, technological and economical changes witnessed by Arctic communities threaten their sustainable food supply. This session will address interlinkages between traditional knowledge, culture, food security, and health and wellbeing, to build resilient food regimes and to enhance sovereignty and livelihood security for future generations across the Arctic, with particular reference to the European High North.

Fulbright Arctic Initiative - Cohort II

Affiliation: University of Alaska Anchorage, Sámi Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Mental Health and Substance Use (SANKS), Finnmark Hospital Trust, University of Manitoba | Country: United States | Organizer(s): Katie Cueva, Jon Petter Stoor, Josée Lavoie

The 2018-19 Fulbright Arctic Initiative brought together a network of scholars, professionals and applied researchers from the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden for a series of three seminar meetings and individual research exchanges for each Fellow. The initiative aimed to create international scientific collaboration between participants. As part of the initiative, fellows addressed public policy research questions relevant to Arctic nations’ shared challenges and opportunities. In this session, Fulbright Arctic Initiative fellows will present their work as part of the fellowship, including projects throughout the circumpolar north on themes related to sustainable economies and thriving communities.

Futures of Gender in the Arctic

Affiliation: Åbo Akademi University | Country: Finland | Organizer(s): Stephan Dudeck, J. Otto Habeck, Gunhild Hoogensen-Gjørv, Katariina Kyrölä, Gertrude Saxinger

"The IASSA Working Group ‘Gender in the Arctic’ was established during ICASS IX in Umea four years ago. Following the ICASS X slogan ‘Looking Back and Looking Forward,’ we invite short presentations that address pressing current gender-related themes in research and activism, and/or envision future directions, activities, collaborations and topics relevant to Arctic gender studies and diversity in the North. The past workshops, sessions and panel discussions the Working Group (co-)hosted have examined two key topics: 1) ‘Gender in Polar Research’ interrogated the masculine legacies of polar exploration and other gendered/sexual/power dynamics in contemporary field work conditions, methodologies, and epistemologies; and 2) Indigenous Queer Intersections in the Arctic addressed LGBTQIA+ people, gender-nonconformity and queer studies as an important but under-explored focus to understand the multifaceted forms of oppression and activism in various societies around the Arctic, particularly in Indigenous contexts. This session invites contributions in the form of 5-to-10-minute input-talks, either around the themes mentioned above, or to identify new gender-related topics that could be addressed by the WG Gender in the Arctic in the future. The session format will actively engage the presenters and the audience to develop ideas for the WG’s future activities to serve the advancement of social justice across the Arctic and among its Indigenous and non-Indigenous inhabitants. The IASSA Working Group Gender in the Arctic serves as a platform for collaboration (e.g. with other LGBTQI+, women and gender initiatives), service (e.g. an e-mail list) and lobbying for intersectional concerns in Arctic and Polar forums. https://gender-arctic.jimdofree.com/"

Gender and Labour in the Arctic

Affiliation: Austrian Polar Research Institute, McMaster University | Country: Austria | Organizer(s): Gertrude Saxinger, Suzanne Mills

Changes in the organization of work and gender relations are mutually constitutive. This starting point allows us to critically investigate wage work’s power to reconfigure sociality in the realms of e.g. home, workplace or subsistence activities. Previous research about gender in the Arctic has often focused on the impacts of resource development on women. This panel seeks to foster a discussion about gender relations in the Arctic that examines how gender and waged work more broadly as well as how gendered waged work is connected to subsistence production, volunteerism, the public sector and other social relations of northern mixed economies. We invite papers that explore masculinity and femininity influence work within and outside of extractive industries in the Arctic; gendered labour-migration; gender relations in subsistence production; Indigenous feminism; and other questions related to gender and wage labour.