We are pleased to announce in June we will be hosting a Research Training Workshop on the theme of “Northern Convergence: Peoples, Environment, and Politics in Russia’s Arctic and Sub-Arctic” co-hosted by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer (Georgetown University) and Vera Solovyeva (George Mason University and American Museum of Natural History).
In these unstable times of climate change and geopolitical testing, Russia’s Arctic and sub-Arctic have become increasingly significant. What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, as a recent National Academy of Science symposium proclaimed. This workshop explores the implications of instability and the potential for sustainable multiethnic communities in Siberia and the Far East. We pay particular attention to Indigenous peoples, historically left out of conversations about development but increasingly part of long-term planning. Legally defined “small-numbered peoples” in Russia number over 40 groups, many of whom live in the North. In addition, according to United Nations definitions, Indigenous peoples numbering over 50,000 with their own republics within Russia should also be included. These larger groups have gained a degree of negotiated sovereignty in the post-Soviet period, but that self-determination has become threatened, especially in the past decade.
Please note that participants interested in applying to The Summer Research Laboratory (SRL) can still be admitted on a rolling basis.
We wish you the best in this painful time. Please be in touch should you have any questions about the SRL program and application process or the Research Training Workshop on the theme of “Northern Convergence: Peoples, Environment, and Politics in Russia’s Arctic and Sub-Arctic.” You may reach us at reeec-srl@illinois.edu.