Jun 13, 2024: Talk by Olga Povoroznyuk at the sowi:doc Awards Ceremony

Olga Povoroznyuk receives the sowi:doc 2023 Award by the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences. © Barbara Mair / Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences
Olga Povoroznyuk gives a talk at the sowi:doc 2023 Award ceremony. © Barbara Mair / ViDSS.

“We build a railroad and the railroad builds us.” This idea gave title to Olga Povoroznyuk’s talk at the sowi:doc 2023 Awards ceremony of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences (ViDSS).

Dr. Povoroznyuk, one of this year’s award winners, talked about her dissertation “Soviet infrastructure in the post-Soviet era? Building a railroad and identity along the Baikal–Amur Mainline in East Siberia,” which delved into the role of large-scale infrastructure projects as embodiments of state modernization and identity-building processes. Drawing on her case study of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a railroad line built in the 1970s and 1980s in East Siberia, she explored how this transportation infrastructure shaped socialist communities and identities and remains a powerful medium for transmitting ideologies and memories in the post-socialist politics of identity and emotion.

Also speaking at the event were the other two award winners, Etienne Schneider and Marlis Stubenvoll, and three students of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences. The welcome addresses were given by Manuela Baccarini, vice-rector for research and international affairs at the University of Vienna, Hajo Boomgaarden, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Sophie Lecheler, spokesperson of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences.

The event, titled “Rising voices – social scientists on stage,” took place at the Sky Lounge (Oskar Morgenstern-Platz 1) on Thursday 13 June at 17:00 CEST.

Sep 30, 2024: Article by Alexis Sancho-Reinoso and Tim Heleniak in “Island Studies Journal”

Island Studies Journal has recently published several early-access papers prior to assignment to an issue, including the article “Turning the Faroes into One City. Demographic and Spatial Impacts of 60 Years of Transport Infrastructure Expansion,” by Alexis Sancho-Reinoso and Timothy Heleniak. Over the last six decades, the Faroe Islands, an 18-island archipelago in the North […]

Photo by Alexandra Meyer.

Sep 30, 2024: Call for Abstracts on “The Challenges of Arctic Infrastructure” for the ICARP IV Summit

The call for abstracts for the 4th International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV) taking place on 25-28 March 2025 in Boulder, Colorado (USA) as part of the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) is now open until 30 September 2024. InfraNorth team members Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk, and Alexandra Meyer, together with Vera Kuklina (George Washington University) […]

Sep 2024: Article in “Études Inuit Studies” by Sophie Elixhauser

The latest issue of Études Inuit Studies (Vol. 47, No. 1-2, September 2024) features the article “Making and Unmaking Airports in Tunu (East Greenland): The Socio-Material Dynamics of Hope and Connectivity” by Sophie Elixhauser. Like many airports throughout the Arctic, Kulusuk Airport, the entrance to the sparsely populated East Coast of Greenland, is built on […]

Sep 16, 2024: Presentations by Peter Schweitzer and Ria-Maria Adams at the 29th International Polar Conference

InfraNorth members Peter Schweitzer and Ria-Maria Adams will be presenting at the 29th International Polar Conference, co-organized by the Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI) and the German Society of Polar Research (DGP). This year’s conference will be held in Rauris, Austria, from September 16 – 20, under the motto “Dynamic Poles and High Mountain Environments.” […]

Announcement of the InfraNorth Workshop “Ethnography Beyond the Case Study: Possibilities and Limitations of Comparison”

Sep 10, 2024: InfraNorth Workshop “Ethnography Beyond the Case Study: Possibilities and Limitations of Comparison”

Date and time: September 10, 2024, from 09:30 to 18:00 CEST. Venue: Nordregio. Holmamiralens Väg 10, Skeppsholmen, 111 49 Stockholm, Sweden (See: Map). Register here for in-person attendance. Register here for online participation. The ERC Advanced Grant project InfraNorth, in collaboration with Nordregio, will host the workshop “Ethnography Beyond the Case Study: Possibilities and Limitations […]