Rural policy institute to meet at UAF
June 27, 2016
Experts and graduate students from around the world will spend two weeks at the University of Alaska Fairbanks discussing rural policy and sustainability at the 13th International Comparative Rural Policy Studies Summer Institute, July 14-26. The institutes are held in North America and Europe in alternating years.
The theme of this year’s institute is “Northern Perspectives on Global Challenges.” Participants will hear about issues such as rural education, climate change, food security and migration. They will also enjoy several field trips, including visits to Calypso Farm and Ecology Center and Chena Hot Springs Resort. At the resort, they'll learn about its efforts to harness renewable energy.
Since 2004, more than 300 graduate students from North America and Europe have benefited from the institutes' innovative blend of classroom instruction, rural visits and research meetings.
This year, the institute is hosted by Sustainable Futures North, a research project funded in part by grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
SFN’s principal investigator, Philip Loring, said the institute is an “opportunity to expose the best and brightest minds thinking about rural issues to the unique challenges being experienced in the North.” Loring is an adjunct faculty member at UAF's Institute of Northern Engineering and an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
“Each year, the summer institute provides a venue for students and faculty from universities in Europe, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. to learn both about the issues that rural people face but also how best to communicate science so that it can inform rural policy,” Loring said.
Next year, the institute returns to Europe and will be held in Madrid.
Partial funding for the ICRPS Summer Institute is provided by the National Science Foundation (PLR-1263853) and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grants Program (C00041710-3).
For more information, please contact Loring at ploring@alaska.edu and go online to ICRPS 2016 Summer Institute.