Ellen Ahlness, political science, FLAS Fellow, Inuktitut, 2018–19 I am working toward my PhD in political science. My research looks at the role of nonstate actors in global politics. Specifically, I analyze the role of Arctic Indigenous organizations and their influence on international organizations, primarily the Arctic Council. Therefore, it is very important to me

Nadine Fabbi, Managing Director of the Jackson School Canadian Studies Center, is quoted in “U.S. university teaches students Inuktitut through funding prompted by Sputnik launch” on how the Inuktitut language, which is spoken in Canada, came about as a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship opportunity for students at the University of Washington. In discussing

Learning Inuktitut through the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship from the Canadian Studies Center has given me a window into Inuit language, culture, and history. And I’ve had the incredible opportunity to study with Mick Mallon, Canadian linguist and Alexina Kublu, former Language Commissioner for Nunavut, Canada. Mick and Kublu taught us how

To those UW students thinking about studying Inuktitut, I give you the words of professor Mick Mallon, renowned Canadian linguist, on “casual” Inuktitut learning: “‘Picking up’ Inuktitut would be like would be like putting together an IKEA space rocket kit.” Any beginner will quickly discover a complex language with a precise grammar completely unrelated to

“Ukiuqta’qtumi Hivuniptingnun: One Arctic, One Future,” written by Nadine Fabbi, Canadian Studies Managing Director; Jason Young, former Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellow in Inuktitut; and Eric Finke, independent scholar, was recently published in the book One Arctic: The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance (2017). The chapter and book are an outcomes of a two-day workshop

In 2008 the UW was the first institution in the nation to award a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for Inuktitut. Tim Pasch, the first FLAS Fellow in Inuktitut, went on to receive four more Fellowships and to achieve fluency in the language. His doctoral dissertation was on social media and its impact on

Above: Mick Mallon, Canadian Inuktitut instructor lectures at Linguistics colloquium by Brent Woo, Linguistics Mallon, who might possibly be Canada’s preeminent non-Inuktitut instructor, is better described through his past work than by giving him any one title. Mallon was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1933. He graduated from Cambridge in 1954 and then emigrated

This summer FLAS fellows Jason Young, a doctoral candidate in Geography, and Walter O’Toole, an English major and Arctic Studies minor, spent three weeks in Igoolik, Nunavut in Canada’s Arctic studying Inuktitut, the Inuit language, with Alexina Kublu, the former Language Commissioner for Nunavut. Walter O’Toole, Creative Writing (major) and Arctic Studies (minor), FLAS Fellow

Tim Pasch, FLAS Fellow in Inuktitut (2008), University of North Dakota, joining in a fishing derby in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Above: Sheila Watt-Cloutier (left) with Jen Marlow, founder of the Climate Justice Project, Three Degrees Warmer, at the UW School of Law. (3/14) by Annie Banel, MPA Candidate, Evans School of Public Affairs; Canadian Studies Center Reporter Watt-Cloutier opened with a greeting in Inuktitut to underline the importance of language in the Inuit culture. Though