Student story - One Health in the Arctic, Nuuk 2025
PhD student, Vár Honnudóttir reflects on her trip to Nuuk to participate in the PhD course, One Health in the Arctic and the NUNAMED conference
My name is Vár Honnudóttir, and I am a PhD student at the University of the Faroe Islands, where I study social inequality in health in the Faroese population. Although the Faroe Islands are often seen as a homogeneous and equal society, we lack evidence on whether health is socially patterned. My work addresses this gap by analysing large population-based health surveys, as registry-based research is not possible in our setting. I examine potential associations between indicators of social position and health outcomes, and the mechanisms that may underlie these patterns in a small-scale island society.
I travelled to Nuuk to participate in the PhD course One Health in the Arctic and the NUNAMED conference. I wished to join this event because the One Health approach offers a broader perspective of health determinants, emphasizing the connections between people, environment and animals. This framework is relevant for Arctic and island societies, where traditional practices, environmental conditions and cultural structures may interact with social inequality in distinct ways. The course provided new reflections that are directly useful for my PhD project, and several discussions highlighted factors that may influence health in ways not captured by standard socioeconomic measures. During the week, I also met researchers working on related topics, including colleagues involved in health surveys in Greenland, which has already led to further contact.
The UArctic grant made a significant difference for me. Travelling from the Faroe Islands to Greenland is expensive, and the support helped cover essential travel costs and made my participation feasible within my limited PhD budget. Through the course and conference, I gained theoretical perspectives, feedback on my ongoing analyses, and valuable presentation experience by presenting my poster at NUNAMED. The event also broadened my understanding of Arctic health challenges and strengthened my academic network in the region.
Visiting Greenland made a strong personal impression. Despite clear differences, I experienced a sense of familiarity between our small and isolated societies, and this reinforced my motivation to continue working within Arctic health research and to explore comparative perspectives between Greenland and the Faroe Islands