Jan 2026: InfraNorth Chapters Featured in “Arctic Silk Roads: An Anthropology of the Unbuilt” (Berghahn Books)

InfraNorth researchers have contributed two chapters to the book Arctic Silk Roads: An Anthropology of the Unbuilt, edited by Natalia Magnani and Matthew Magnani, and published by Berghahn Books as part of its Studies in the Circumpolar North series.

As climate change accelerates, the melting of sea ice is fueling the global imagination and geopolitical anticipation of the Arctic region’s accessible transport routes and potential for resource extraction. “Silk roads” are being conjured across the circumpolar North, both as official Arctic and infrastructural policy, and as broader visions of global connectivity with other markets. Following the myriad ways that local economies and agencies are proliferating around the anticipation of large-scale infrastructural corridors and their often-unrealized arteries, Arctic Silk Roads examines the different conditions under which top-down infrastructural dreams facilitate or constrain individual agencies.

InfraNorth team members’ contributions include:

  • Polar Silk Worlding: Imagination, Infrastructure, and Anticipation in Chinese Arctic Tourism, by Ria-Maria Adams and Mia M. Bennett. (Chapter 4)
  • The Promises and Fears of Infrastructure: An Alaskan Port Expansion, Geopolitics, and Local (Dis-)Engagement, by Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer. (Chapter 7)

For more information, please visit the Berghahn Books website.

The book Arctic Silk Roads: An Anthropology of the Unbuilt (edited by N. Magnani and M. Magnani, Berghahn Books, January 2026) features two chapters by InfraNorth researchers.
Cover of the Polar Geography journal.

Feb 2026: Article by Susan Vanek in Polar Geography Special Issue

The quarterly peer-reviewed journal Polar Geography has published the article “2200 meters: infrastructure, the future, and the politics of belonging in Greenland and the Arctic” by InfraNorth associate researcher Susan Vanek. The article examines Greenland’s airport expansion project, following its approval in 2015 by Naalakkersuisut (the Government of Greenland) as the largest investment in transportation […]

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

Dec 2025: Article by Alexandra Meyer, Ria-Maria Adams and Sophie Elixhauser in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography has recently published the article “Lifelines and Gateways: The Relational Affordances of Arctic Airports” by InfraNorth researchers Alexandra Meyer, Ria-Maria Adams and Sophie Elixhauser. Airports are indispensable to life in the Arctic. Often shaped by geopolitical agendas and external economic interests, they provide vital links for local communities across remote […]

Dec 2025: Peter Schweitzer Interviewed on Austrian Public Radio Ö1

The Austrian public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) featured InfraNorth principal investigator Peter Schweitzer in an interview on its Ö1 weekend feuilleton “Diagonal” on December 6, 2025, which focused on the politics of infrastructure. Schweitzer appeared in a segment titled “A Silk Road Across the Arctic” (in German: Seidenstrasse über die Arktis), interviewed by Erich Klein […]