Feb 26–Mar 1, 2025: Presentations by Philipp Budka and Katrin Schmid at the 46th Annual GKS Conference

InfraNorth researchers Philipp Budka and Katrin Schmid will present their work at the 46th Annual Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries (GKS). Under the theme “The North: Changes, Challenges, Opportunities,” the conference will be held in Berlin from February 26 to March 1, 2025.

Philipp Budka will participate in Panel 11, “Northern Infrastructures,” on Saturday, March 1, from 09:30 to 11:00 CET. He will present his paper “Digital and Transport Infrastructures in Northern Canada: On Ownership, Control and Relationality,” which explores the role of digital and transport infrastructures in remote communities in northern Canada. His discussion will focus on issues of ownership, control, and relationality in these infrastructures. Drawing on previous ethnographic fieldwork on the Indigenization of digital infrastructure in Northwestern Ontario, Budka extends his analysis with recent research conducted in Churchill, Manitoba. This case study examines the promises, failures, and transformations of transport infrastructures. From an ethnographic and anthropological perspective, he argues that infrastructure is not merely an operational system of technological objects but a complex, relational phenomenon.

Katrin Schmid will present the poster “Country Food Cargo: Transport Infrastructure and Imagined Futures in Nunavut,” which will be displayed at the exhibition room of the Canadian Embassy in Berlin during the conference. Her research explores how transport infrastructure affects food sovereignty in Nunavut, a territory with no agriculture and no connection to the national highway network. It highlights the need to align infrastructure planning with community needs to strengthen food sovereignty as well as northern communities.

For more details and the full program, visit the conference website.