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 the remnants of past military activities and is located some distance from the regional capital, Tasiilaq. For years, there have been discussions regarding the construction of a new airport in Tasiilaq to improve connectivity and reduce dependence on helicopter flights. Throughout the East Coast, many residents feel that they are looked down upon by the (West) Greenlandic population and are given little priority in the political and economic decisions taking place in the faraway national capital of Nuuk, which feeds into residents’ attitudes towards the ever-suspended airport plans. Many residents place great hope on this plan, as this “infrastructural hope” (Reeves 2017) includes economic and social possibilities and an improvement of the region’s status both within the country and abroad. On the other hand, in the village of Kulusuk, near the current airport, people fear the repercussions of this new airport.

Elixhauser explores the hopes, fears, and affect generated by and embedded within infrastructure, considering issues of remoteness, social and physical connectivity, “infrastructural violence” (Rodgers and O’Neill 2012), and residents’ future imaginaries and historical experiences in (post-)colonial Greenland. Describing the socio-material dynamics of hope and connectivity, the article shows how aviation infrastructure is never just about the physical infrastructure but is always enabled by and embedded in societal processes.

The article can be found 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 […]

Presentation by Philipp Budka at the IKSA Wednesday Seminars

Nov 5, 2025: Presentation by Philipp Budka at the University of Vienna

On November 5, 2025, at 5:00 pm CET, InfraNorth researcher Philipp Budka will deliver a lecture titled “Sovereignty by Design: Community Infrastructures and Relational Futures in Remote Canada,” as part of the Wednesday Seminars, the lecture series of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. Budka’s talk examines infrastructural sovereignty—the […]

The skyline of Anchorage, Alaska, as seen from the airport. Photo by Peter Schweitzer.

Oct 2025: Presentation by Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer in Anchorage, Alaska

Olga Povoroznyuk and Peter Schweitzer presented findings from the InfraNorth project at the ARCA co-creative community workshop “Biocultural Heritage and Climate Adaptation in Arctic Cities,” held on October 7–8, 2025, at The Nave in Anchorage, Alaska. Their presentation drew connections between their recent research conducted in Anchorage and other field sites in Alaska: on the […]

Oct 1, 2025: InfraNorth Presentations at the 2025 GASCA Conference “Un/Commoning Anthropology”

On October 1, 2025, InfraNorth researchers Philipp Budka, Elena Davydova, Katrin Schmid and Susanna Gartler will present at the 2025 conference of the German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA/DGKSA). This year’s edition will be held from September 29 to October 2, 2025, at the University of Köln, under the theme “Un/Commoning Anthropology.” Temporalities […]

10th EUGEO Congress Vienna 2025

Sep 10, 2025: Presentation by Alexis Sancho Reinoso at the EUGEO Congress 2025

At the EUGEO Congress 2025 in Vienna, held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences from September 8 to 11, Alexis Sancho Reinoso will present a paper co-authored with Timothy Heleniak: “Turning the Faroes Into One City. Demographic and Spatial Impacts of 60 Years of Transport Infrastructure Expansion.” The paper presents findings from their research in […]