3rd International Ph.D. School for Studies of Arctic Societies

Submitted by Lawrence Kaplan
Phone: (907) 474-6582
05/19/05

The Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will host the 3rd International Ph.D School for Studies of Arctic Societies May 23-June 3, 2005. IPSSAS will bring 15 Ph.D. and master’s degree students and faculty from around the circumpolar north to share ideas on Inuit (including Yupik) studies.

This year’s seminar, Resilience in Arctic Societies, emphasizes the long presence of peoples in the Arctic and how they have endured and responded to changing conditions, from the influx of outsiders from the south to the impacts of global climate change.

IPSSAS is a result of collaboration between a group of professors, researchers and northerners from different institutions who have had a long involvement in the study of arctic societies. The goals of IPSSAS are to promote the study of arctic societies in the fields of history, culture and language; explore new research trends in those fields and develop coordinated and collaborative post-graduate teaching; to stimulate international networking and synergy between participating scientific institutions; to foster partnerships between arctic societies and participating scientific institutions, and to encourage participation and knowledge sharing with arctic communities in its activities, so as to bring more students from arctic societies to study at the Ph.D. level.

The first IPSSAS seminar took place in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, in May 2002, with the theme of Arctic Societies and Research: Dynamics and Shifting Perspectives and participation of 18 Ph.D. and M.A. students. In 2003, the second seminar took place in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, Canada with the theme Building Capacity in Arctic Societies: Dynamics and Shifting Perspectives.

CONTACT: Lawrence Kaplan, ANLC director (907) 474-6582 or ffldk@uaf.edu or visit the IPSSAS website at www.hum.ku.dk/ipssas/ for more information.