Northern Research Day 2021: February 11 & 12, 2021
Download schedule HERE.
What is Northern Research Day?
The goal of Northern Research Day is to provide a friendly environment for graduate students to exchange ideas and provide a stress-free forum to practice presenting your research. Most of all, our mission is to bring together students from a diverse range of disciplines and backgrounds, to stimulate conversation and connect to a new network of peers. We hope to promote discussion and help us work together to think about the most complex issues facing the North.
See recorded talks and presentations from Northern Research Day 2021 HERE.
The goal of Northern Research Day is to provide a friendly environment for graduate students to exchange ideas and provide a stress-free forum to practice presenting your research. Most of all, our mission is to bring together students from a diverse range of disciplines and backgrounds, to stimulate conversation and connect to a new network of peers. We hope to promote discussion and help us work together to think about the most complex issues facing the North.
See recorded talks and presentations from Northern Research Day 2021 HERE.
Watch the expert panel discussion on knowledge co-production:
Watch the keynote presentation from Dr. Aviaja Hauptmann:
Meet our invited speakers
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Aviaja Hauptmann
Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann, postdoc and public debater, has a background in microbiology from the University of Copenhagen (2013) and a Ph.D. in microbial metagenomics and microbial ecology from The Technical University of Denmark (2017). Hauptmann has led the research project The Greenland Diet Revolution for the past three years at the University of Greenland – Ilisimatusarfik. The project seeks to understand the health potential from traditional Greenlandic foods from a microbial perspective. In addition to microbial research the project has resulted in public discussion about food sovereignty in Greenland and ethical conduct of research in the Arctic. Currently, Hauptmann is in transition into a two-year scholarship at the University of California Davis funded by the Danish Carlsberg Foundation. For further info refer to www.greenlanddietrevolution.wordpress.com and @agreenisland at Instagram. |
Expert Panelist: Carolina Behe, MA
Carolina Behe is the Indigenous Knowledge/Science advisor for the Inuit Circumpolar Council Alaska. As part of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Alaska team, her work is diverse and ranges from topics within food security and biodiversity to management and policy. Within the past couple of years, Carolina has been part of a team with focus on Inuit food sovereignty. Internationally, Carolina acts as the Inuit Circumpolar Council Head of Delegation on the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna working group board and brings forward ICC’s positions within the Convention on Biological Diversity. Much of ICC’s work within these international floras are focused on ensuring an Inuit perspective and interest are at the table. Additionally, a high amount of focus is placed on the involvement of Indigenous Knowledge and promoting the use of a co-production of knowledge approach to bring together Indigenous Knowledge and science. Carolina's work allows for her to work within two knowledge systems, Indigenous Knowledge and science. Indigenous Knowledge takes a holistic view and sees how many pieces fit together. Working with this understanding and way of knowing, combined with science, will aid in make adaptive ecosystem based decisions. |
Expert Panelist: Dr. Gita Ljubicic
Gita Ljubicic is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth, Environment and Society at McMaser University in Hamilton, Ontario, and is a Canada Research Chair in Community-Engaged Research for Northern Sustainability. She works at the intersection of cultural and environmental geography, driven by a deep commitment to respecting and learning from Indigenous knowledge alongside science in order to address complex socio-ecological issues. Over the past 19 years she has worked with Inuit community members and organizations across Inuit Nunangat (Inuit homelands) in Canada on projects that aim to address community-identified priorities. Her research team (straightupnorth.ca) involves northern and southern researchers working together with a shared goal for research to benefit community partners, contribute to decision-making, improve research practice, and support Inuit self-determination in research. |
Expert Panelist: Dr. Tara Joly
Tara Joly is an Assistant Professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. She is an environmental anthropologist specializing in applied and community-based research with Indigenous peoples in northern Canada. Dr. Joly’s research interests include Indigenous rights, extractive industries, disturbed landscapes, settler colonialism, human-animal and human-plant relations, history of science, and interdisciplinary studies. Her work examines Métis and other Indigenous responses to Alberta oil sands development, with an emphasis on (wet)land reclamation and encounters between different ways of knowing and using the environment. She is particularly interested in documenting how Indigenous land in settler colonial states is remade as extractive territory or settler home, and her research examines and supports processes by which Indigenous peoples assert sovereignty and renew relationships to place. Prior to joining UNBC’s Anthropology Department, Dr. Joly was a Research Director with Willow Springs Strategic Solutions, Inc., a social science research consulting firm based in Cochrane, Alberta. As a consultant, she conducted applied research projects in Alberta, including community-based research, traditional land use impact assessments, technical reviews, environmental monitoring research, and oral history research. |
Expert Panelist: Ingrid Kritsch, MA
Ingrid Kritsch is a cultural anthropologist and archaeologist. Since 1977, she has carried out research in the Canadian North and for over half of her career worked with the Gwich’in (1992-2019), the most northern First Nation in Canada, carrying out community-based research. She was the founding Executive Director of the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI) from 1993-1998 and served as Research Director from 1998 to 2019. As Research Director, she was responsible for all heritage and cultural research and policy in the Gwich’in Settlement Region, work that implemented the Gwich’in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement signed in 1992. She was the project manager, lead researcher and co-investigator of over 100 research projects, many of which were multi-year in nature, and mentored graduate students in a variety of disciplines from universities in Canada and Europe. Because of her long, dedicated service she was made an honorary member of the Gwich’in of the Northwest Territories in 2008. Ingrid’s research interests include Gwich’in traditional knowledge and oral history on topics ranging from traditional land use and toponomy to the replication of traditional material culture such as caribou skin clothing. A key part of her work was increasing public awareness of the Gwich'in. This was accomplished through the development of partnerships and products such as: publications, museum and web exhibits, and online resources, ethnographic and feature films, Gwich’in place name maps for traditional lands, and a companion online Place Name and Story Atlas. The official recognition of Gwich’in place names in the NWT and Yukon, and official recognition of nine new Territorial and National Historic Sites were also important products of the community-based work she carried out with GSCI. Ingrid’s work with the Gwich’in raised awareness about the value of Indigenous traditional knowledge at a time this was just starting to be recognized, and “broke trail” for the concept of Indigenous cultural landscapes through the successful nomination of Nagwichoonjik (the Mackenzie River) as a National Historic Site in 1997. In 2016, the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute transitioned into the Gwich'in Tribal Council Department of Cultural Heritage. Ingrid officially retired in 2019 but continues her engagement in Gwich'in projects. She was educated at McGill University (Honour’s BA Anthropology and Geography), McMaster University (MA Anthropology) and the University of Alberta. Awards recognizing her heritage research and advocacy include: the Wise Woman Award from the Status of Women Council of the NWT (2000), and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). In November 2020, Ingrid was part of a Gwich'in Tribal Council team awarded the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming. |
Expert Panelist: Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser
Crystal Gail Fraser is Gwichyà Gwich’in and originally from Inuvik and Dachan Choo Gę̀hnjik in the Northwest Territories. Her PhD research focused on the history of student experiences at Indian Residential Schools in the Inuvik Region between 1959 and 1996. Crystal’s work makes a strong contribution to how scholars engage with Indigenous research methodologies and theoretical concepts, our understanding of Indigenous histories during the second half of the twentieth century, and how northern Canada was unique in relation to the rest of the settler nation. Dr. Crystal Fraser was awarded the 2020 John Bullen Prize by the Canadian Historical Association for her thesis, titled T’aih k’ìighe’ tth’aih zhit dìidìch’ùh or By Strength We Are Still Here. The prize honours the outstanding PhD thesis on a historical topic submitted in a Canadian university. |
Thank you to our sponsors: UAlberta North and Kule Institute for Advanced Study