Dec 13, 2023: Olga Povoroznyuk Receives sowi:doc Award 2023

Dr. Olga Povoroznyuk, the research coordinator and study region lead for the Russian Arctic in InfraNorth, has received the sowi:doc Award 2023 for her outstanding dissertation project “Soviet infrastructure in the post-Soviet era? Building a railroad and identity along the Baikal–Amur Mainline in East Siberia.”

Dr. Povoroznyuk defended her dissertation at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, with the supervision of Dr. Peter Schweitzer, in September 2022. Her thesis explores the role of large-scale infrastructure projects as embodiments of state modernization and identity building processes. Drawing on the case study of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a railroad line built in the 1970s and 1980s in East Siberia, she explores how the railroad shaped socialist communities and identities and how it still remains a powerful medium for transmission of ideologies and memories in the post-socialist politics of identity and emotion. In her railroad ethnography, she introduces the concept of transformative infrastructure to highlight the agency of large-scale projects drawing Indigenous, local and migrant populations into the orbit of modernization. Her research was supported by the FWF project Configurations of “Remoteness”, as well as the ERC Advanced Grant Project InfraNorth.

The Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna grants the sowi:doc Awards annually to recognize excellent research outcomes. These awards are given to three to four doctoral graduates whose theses have been nominated by their supervisors. The primary goal of the sowi:doc Awards is to inspire and encourage these graduates to pursue an academic career.

Jan 2026: InfraNorth Contributions to Forthcoming Book “Arctic Silk Roads”

InfraNorth researchers contribute two chapters to the forthcoming book Arctic Silk Roads: An Anthropology of the Unbuilt, edited by Natalia Magnani and Matthew Magnani. The volume will be published by Berghahn Books in January 2026 as part of the Studies in the Circumpolar North series. As climate change accelerates, the melting of sea ice is […]

Presentation by Philipp Budka at the IKSA Wednesday Seminars

Nov 5, 2025: Presentation by Philipp Budka at the University of Vienna

On November 5, 2025, at 5:00 pm CET, InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka will deliver a lecture titled “Sovereignty by Design: Community Infrastructures and Relational Futures in Remote Canada,” as part of the Wednesday Seminars, the lecture series of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. Budka’s talk examines infrastructural sovereignty—the […]

The skyline of Anchorage, Alaska, as seen from the airport. Photo by Peter Schweitzer.

Oct 2025: Presentation by Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer in Anchorage, Alaska

Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer presented findings from the InfraNorth project at the ARCA co-creative community workshop “Biocultural Heritage and Climate Adaptation in Arctic Cities,” held on October 7–8, 2025, at The Nave in Anchorage, Alaska. Their presentation drew connections between their recent research conducted in Anchorage and other field sites in Alaska: on the […]

Oct 1, 2025: InfraNorth Presentations at the 2025 GASCA Conference “Un/Commoning Anthropology”

On October 1, 2025, InfraNorth researchers Philipp Budka, Elena Davydova, Katrin Schmid and Susanna Gartler will present at the 2025 conference of the German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA/DGKSA). This year’s edition will be held from September 29 to October 2, 2025, at the University of Köln, under the theme “Un/Commoning Anthropology.” Temporalities […]

10th EUGEO Congress Vienna 2025

Sep 10, 2025: Presentation by Alexis Sancho Reinoso at the EUGEO Congress 2025

At the EUGEO Congress 2025 in Vienna, held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences from September 8 to 11, Alexis Sancho Reinoso will present a paper co-authored with Timothy Heleniak: “Turning the Faroes Into One City. Demographic and Spatial Impacts of 60 Years of Transport Infrastructure Expansion.” The paper presents findings from their research in […]