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.
Food, Culture & Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Apr 2026: Article by Katrin Schmid in the Food, Culture & Society Journal

The international multidisciplinary journal Food, Culture & Society has recently published a new article by InfraNorth researcher Katrin Schmid, titled “Transporting Arctic foodways: the infrastructure of food sovereignty in Nunavut, Canada.” The conversation around sustainable food in Canada’s Arctic today is inherently connected to the logistics of transportation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork (2022–2025), this research […]

Svalbard Airport, Photo by Alexandra Meyer.

Mar 2026: Article by Alexandra Meyer in Polar Geography Special Issue

The quarterly peer-reviewed journal Polar Geography has published the article “Hyperconnected remoteness: the Svalbard airport and community transitions in Longyearbyen” by InfraNorth researcher Alexandra Meyer. The article examines the role of Svalbard Airport in shaping socio-economic transitions and everyday life in Longyearbyen, the largest settlement on the Svalbard archipelago. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, complemented […]

InfraNorth researcher Timothy Heleniak presented “Is infrastructure enough? The case of decline in the Faroe Islands” at the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels.

Mar 10, 2026: Presentation by Timothy Heleniak at the European Committee of the Regions

On March 10, 2026, InfraNorth researcher Timothy Heleniak presented “Is infrastructure enough? The case of decline in the Faroe Islands” at the concluding conference of the Horizon Europe-funded project PREMIUM_EU. The event was organized by Nordregio and hosted by the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels and live-streamed online. In this talk, Heleniak presented […]

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 […]