The Winter 2026 Arctic Task Force brought Jackson School students together to examine Arctic geopolitics, environmental change, and Indigenous rights amid shifting regional leadership in the Arctic Council. Through collaborative research and engagement with expert evaluators, students developed policy recommendations centered on Indigenous knowledge, self-determination, and international cooperation. Michelle Koutnik, shares her experience as the

The 2nd edition of The Handbook of the Politics of the Arctic was just published including a chapter by Director Nadine C. Fabbi, “Inuit foreign policy & international relations in the Arctic.” The Handbook was edited by Geir Hønneland, Research Professor, Andreas Østhagen, Research Director, Arctic and Ocean Politics, Fridtjof Nansen Institute and Svein Vigeland Rottem, Senior Research Fellow, Fridtjof

On February 19th, the Center for Canadian & Arctic Studies hosted a Greenland Roundtable featuring Simon Lynge, John Johnson, Michelle Koutnik, and Jose Miguel Roncero Martin. Simon Lynge, a featured speaker, was interviewed for The Seattle Times. Read the article here. Greenland is an autonomous and self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark which is

A public event will celebrate the launch of Ice Geographies: The Colonial Policies of Race and Indigeneity in the Arctic, by assistant professor Jen Rose Smith (American Indian Studies). The June 6 on-campus event will feature discussion of the book with four UW scholars: Shannon Cram (Interdisciplinary Arts, UW Bothell), Radhika Govindrajan (Anthropology), Dian Million

This spring, students took part in an international negotiation simulation focused on Arctic security. The course, taught by Robert Pekkanen, provided hands-on experience in the fast-moving, fast-evolving world of global affairs and international hotspots. This year’s negotiation explored the international consequences of the continued melting Arctic and the rush for mineral and fossil fuel exploitation.

Former Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellow Samantha Farquhar was recently awarded her doctorate in integrated coastal sciences by East Carolina University. Her dissertation, “The impacts of industrial fishing on household food security: insights from the Canadian North,” explores the intersection of industrial fisheries and food security in Arctic communities, providing key insights into

Ava Moore (Global and Regional Studies, 2024) has spent this spring as an intern at the Center for Maritime Strategy (CMS) in Washington, D.C. During her time at UW, she participated in the 2024 Transnational Task Force on the Arctic and contributed to a student-led policy report. The Task Force’s expert evaluator, Whit Fraser, suggested

As part of his course on Arctic environmental change and challenges, ARCTIC 401, professor and Fulbright Canada Visiting Chair in Arctic Studies Andrew Medeiros invited guest speakers from across northern Canada to share their work and perspectives with students. Jamal Shirley, Director, Innovation and Research at the Nunavut Research Institute, Nunavut Arctic College, joined the

Pirkko Viljakainen participated in the north2north exchange program for fall 2024. My name is Pirkko. I am a fourth-year law student at the University of Lapland. I’m originally from Tampere, a town in Southern Finland. During the autumn quarter of 2024 I had the incredible opportunity to study at the University of Washington in Seattle

On February 20, over 40 Arctic researchers at UW from faculty to graduate and undergraduate students gathered for an event sponsored by the UW Office of Research called “Fostering an Arctic Research Community at UW.” Participants came from the many departments and institutes at UW doing research relating to the Arctic and northern latitudes, including