Jul 2024: Chapter by Peter Schweitzer in “A Fractured North – Journeys on Hold”

A Fractured North

The publishing house of Kulturstiftung Sibirien, SEC Publications, has just released the book “A Fractured North – Journeys on Hold,” a collection of texts edited by Erich Kasten, Igor Krupnik, and Gail Fondahl. The book, available in both print and digital versions, features a chapter written by Peter Schweitzer, titled “Openings and Closures: The Anthropology of Siberia and the Politics of Field Access.”

In this chapter, Schweitzer delves into historical illustrations of shifts along a continuum of “openings” and “closures” (understanding these terms as relative and relational) between Russia and the “West” (i.e. western Europe and North America) over the course of the 18th and 20th centuries. In doing so, the author seeks to apply historical lessons to our present situation, and asks whether we can learn from them.

This collection of texts is the second volume in a series initiated by SEC Publications in 2023 under the title “A Fractured North,” envisioned as a response of the international community of Northern scholars to the ongoing war in Ukraine and to the disruption (“fracture”) it causes.

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 […]

Cover of the Polar Geography journal.

Dec 2025: Article by Katrin Schmid and Ria-Maria Adams in Polar Geography

The quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal Polar Geography has just released the article “No room in the North: housing scarcity as infrastructure’s failed relations in the Arctic” by InfraNorth researchers Katrin Schmid and Ria-Maria Adams. The article examines the entanglements of housing infrastructure, economic structures, and social relations in Arctic regions, focusing on Nunavut (Canada) and […]

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Dec 2, 2025: Presentation by Ria-Maria Adams at Maynooth University, Ireland

InfraNorth researcher Ria-Maria Adams will deliver a lecture titled “For Whom Do the Sleigh Bells Toll? Social Media’s Role in Shaping Expectations of Arctic Tourism Destinations” on December 2, 2025, at 16:30 GMT, at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, as part of its Anthropology Seminar Series. The talk will delve into how tourism infrastructures […]

Cover of the Polar Geography journal.

Dec 2025: Article by Elena Davydova and Olga Povoroznyuk in Polar Geography

The quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal Polar Geography has recently published the article “Temporality of Arctic Transport Infrastructure: Bridging Seasonal Supply in Egvekinot, Chukotka” by InfraNorth researchers Elena Davydova and Olga Povoroznyuk. The article explores local impacts of, and responses to, seasonal configurations of connectivity and disruptions in the functioning of transport infrastructure in the Russian […]

Budka, Philipp, and Giuseppe Amatulli, eds. Narratives and Temporalities of Infrastructure: The Canadian Experience. Special issue, Anthropologica, Vol. 67, No. 1 (2025).

Nov 2025: Special Issue of “Anthropologica” Co-edited by Giuseppe Amatulli and Philipp Budka

A new special issue of Anthropologica (Vol. 67, No. 1, 2025), the journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society, has just been published. Titled “Narratives and Temporalities of Infrastructure: The Canadian Experience,” the issue was co-edited by Giuseppe Amatulli (Carleton University) and InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka and presents anthropological perspectives on water, energy and transport infrastructures […]

Nov 2025: Article by Julia Olsen, Alexandra Meyer, et al. in The Polar Journal

The Polar Journal, which publishes policy-relevant research on polar affairs from across the social sciences and humanities, has recently released the article ‘Building transdisciplinary bridges and learning from the Svalbard context’ by Julia Olsen, Alexandra Meyer, and Lisbeth Iversen, Ulrich Schildberg, Ragnhild Holmen Bjørnsen, Grete K. Hovelsrud, James Badu, Dina Brode-Roger, Adriana Craciun, Hanne H. […]