Nov 22, 2024: Presentations by Peter Schweitzer and Olga Povoroznyuk at the AAA 2024 Annual Meeting

Peter Schweitzer and Olga Povoroznyuk will be presenting at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 20 – 23, 2024, in Tampa, USA. This year’s conference is centered around the theme Praxis, considering the present and future praxis of anthropology, the application of praxis in our communities, and praxis as collaborative work.

On Friday 22 November, from 12:45 pm to 2:15 pm (EDT), the two InfraNorth team members will contribute to the panel “Anthropological Perspectives on Climate Change and Infrastructure” (session 1584 – part 1), which focuses on the impact of climate change on Arctic infrastructure and sustainable infrastructure development in a shifting environment:

  • Peter Schweitzer will present “Climate Change and the Built Environment: Arctic Perspectives,” focusing on different forms of (transport) infrastructure in the North American, European and – to a lesser extent – the Russian Arctic. He will examine whether roads and other forms of infrastructure can enable sustainable livelihoods, or whether they are simply triggers and/or symptoms of environmental change.
  • Olga Povoroznyuk will present “Maritime Infrastructure: Global Climate Change and Connectivity in a Divided Arctic,” based on her ethnographic research on seaport expansions in Tiksi (Russia), Nome (USA), and Kirkenes (Norway). She will explore the social, cultural, and environmental impacts of maritime infrastructure while reflecting on the promises and threats these projects pose for Arctic coastal communities in a context of climate change and reconfiguring global connections.

In addition, on Wednesday 20 November, from 10:15 am to 11:45 am (EDT), Peter Schweitzer will be part of a round table on “Gender and Kinship in Deep Past: Unified Analysis in the 21st Century?”

The full program is available online here.

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 […]

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

Dec 2025: Forthcoming Special Issue of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

The forthcoming special issue “Ethnographies of Infrastructure” of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, guest edited by Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, and Olga Povoroznyuk, is progressively being made available online ahead of the print edition, which will appear in February 2026. The introduction, authored by Schweitzer, Povoroznyuk, and Budka, is now available open-access. It presents the […]

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

Dec 2025: Article by Katrin Schmid in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography has published the article “Amazon in the Arctic: E-Commerce, Infrastructure, and Alimentary Assemblages in Nunavut, Canada” by InfraNorth researcher Katrin Schmid. Since establishing a delivery hub in Iqaluit, Nunavut in 2020, Amazon.com, Inc. has become an essential resource for many Nunavut residents, providing affordable access to goods otherwise constrained by […]

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

Dec 2025: Article by Olga Povoroznyuk in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography recently published the article “Toward a Comparative Ethnography of Arctic Seaports Projects: Local Impacts of Expanding Maritime Infrastructure in Alaska, Norway, and Russia” by InfraNorth researcher Olga Povoroznyuk. In this article, the author’s comparative ethnography focuses on suspended seaport expansion projects in three Arctic coastal communities: Nome (USA), Kirkenes (Norway), […]

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 […]