Jan 25, 2024: The Doctoral School Approves Elena Davydova’s Dissertation Project

Chukotka Warehouse Garage. Photo by Elena Davydova.
Chukotka Warehouse Garage. Photo by Elena Davydova.

Elena Davydova’s doctoral dissertation project has been approved by the advisory board of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences (ViDSS), University of Vienna, after a successful Fakultätsöffentliche Präsentation. In this public presentation of PhD thesis projects, candidates present their research proposals and their related ethical considerations to the faculty staff. It is an important step at the doctoral studies, and a requisite for the approval of the topic and supervision of the project, which enables its continuation.

Her dissertation project “Infrastructure and/for Sustenance: (Re)Shaping Local Foodways in Remote Russian Arctic Communities” will draw on a year of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Chukotka Autonomous Area (Russia) to explore the transformative potential of infrastructures in relation to food practices. In other words, how existing and ruined infrastructures contribute to the production, distribution, preparation, consumption, and utilization of food items. This research is supported by the ERC Advanced Grant project InfraNorth [Grant Agreement ID: 885646].

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 […]