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 the Applied Physics Laboratory’s Polar Science Center, Civil and Environmental Engineering, the School of Forestry, the Jackson School, Scandinavian, Anthropology, and Geography.
Six professors of various ranks gave three-minute lightning talks on their research, which ranged from lightning strikes across the Arctic to Inuit-Norse encounters in medieval Greenland. The presenters also shared their thoughts on how they could benefit from expanded interdisciplinary collaboration at UW, along with their aspirations to work with and in Arctic communities.
After the lightning talks, participants split up into four breakout groups to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing Arctic research both at UW and beyond before sharing back with the entire gathering.
At a time when the Arctic and cryosphere research communities are facing existential pressures in the U.S., gathering together to candidly discuss these challenges felt timely and even cathartic. As the U.S. government begins to exorcise topics such as climate change and Indigenous Peoples from funding programs, and as entire bodies such as the National Science Foundation and NOAA are facing enormous cuts, maintaining a resilient and resourceful Arctic research community with whatever means possible is more important than ever.
Attendees voiced enthusiasm for continuing to get together with UW-wide Arctic events. One participant suggested rotating between units each month so that each department or institute could share the Arctic research that they are pursuing overall. That way, researchers at UW would get a better sense of the overall landscape of Arctic and northern research at UW.
The workshop was organized by associate professors Mia Bennett, Geography and David Butman, Civil and Environmental Engineering and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.