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Editorial

Outi Snellman Editorial.jpg
Photo: Minna Pakkanen / Valokuvaamo Kipinä

By Outi Snellman, Vice-President Organization, UArctic

At the time of UArctic’s creation, the Circumpolar North was abuzz with the dream that academic collaboration at institutional, faculty and student levels would have a strong role to play in ensuring peace and stability in the Arctic.

UArctic has grown from a handful of enthusiasts believing in the cause to a strong and global network of organizations with direct influence on the institutions’ as well as the nations’ Arctic policies. The fact that the Arctic Council chose education as one of its four priorities during its Finnish chairmanship – the first time in its history – and implemented the activities with UArctic demonstrates this fact.

Clearly UArctic is about collaboration on all levels, but what kind of change has the collaboration made in these two decades? With nearly twenty years of implementing UArctic programs, we use this issue of Shared Voices to more closely explore our impact from a number of perspectives. One clear impact of this collaboration is that our members and activities endorse the values of circumpolarity, promoting northern voices in the globalizing world, reflecting common values and interests across all eight Arctic states and among all northern peoples and cultures; inclusiveness, promoting cultural diversity, language plurality and gender equality while highlighting the partnership between the region’s indigenous peoples and other northerners; and reciprocity, promoting respectful relationships in education, science, research and policy based on equality and trust between northerners and other partners. These values are evident throughout the articles in this magazine, without us having asked the authors to specifically refer to them. I believe this to be our real impact: we are doing things together, with shared voices.

Today, thousands of students have gone from one North to another for studies through our north2north exchange program. The numbers may not be huge, but the impact on the individuals as well as on the institutions and communities has been massive. There is an awareness of the Circumpolar North and an evolving identity that was not there twenty years ago. And where are the north2north students from twenty years ago? They are today’s leaders.

Looking at the globe from the top and viewing the circumpolar region as an area of its own circling the Arctic Ocean is now commonplace, but it was not so when UArctic was established. This change in perception is important as we  evaluate impact. It is not only about peace, security and economic sustainability – it is also about who you identify with.

Table of Contents

  1. Letter from the President

    By Lars Kullerud

  2. New Realities for the Arctic: the Importance of Regional and Circumpolar Cooperation

    By Paula Lehtomäki

  3. Reconciliation and Education

    By Tosh Southwick

  4. What Impact Do We Seek by Funding UArctic?

    By Stine Djørup

  5. Establishing West Nordic Studies in the Land of Maybe

    By Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær

  6. Living in the Landscape

    By Irina Zemtsova

  7. New Alliances – While the Ice Is Melting. Interview with Guest Professor Lotten Gustafsson Reinius

    By Elisabet Idermark

  8. Creating Impact Through Collaboration Between Different Levels of Actors: Developing Arctic Maritime Safety Cooperation

    By Johanna Terva, Saila Heinikoski, Sari Lindblom, Päivi Mattila and Pasi Hario

  9. UArctic Annual Report for 2018

  10. Mon Projet Nordique / My Northern Project – Competition for PhD Students from Québec and the Nordics

    By Brigitte Bigué and Hélène Munger

  11. My Northern Project

    By Kirill Gurvich

  12. Northern Governance: Old Ideas, New Challenges

    By Gary N. Wilson

  13. Mobility Matters: Perspectives from Northern Tourism

    By Patrick Maher

  14. The Arctic as a Commercial Food Producing Region

    By David Natcher et al

  15. Arctic Indigenous Films in the Spotlight

    By Liisa Holmberg

  16. Column: Arctic Horror on the Big Screen

    By Liisa Holmberg

  17. Philosophical Perspectives to Arctic Sustainable Development and the Role of Universities

    By Mauri Ylä-Kotola

  18. Education and Training Needs for Arctic Indigenous Peoples: Outcomes of the Permanent Participant Panel at UArctic Congress 2018

    By Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat

  19. Modeling Inclusion and Gender Equality: Our UArctic Opportunity

    By Melody Brown Burkins

  20. Making Gender Equality Plan A in the Arctic

    By Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek and Tahnee Prior

  21. Student Profiles

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