New SAI scholars
The Stefansson Arctic Institute is pleased to welcome three new scholars with affiliation to the Institute:
Dr Þór Edward Jakobsson, meteorologist and sea ice expert as Senior Associate Scientist, and as Research Associates dr Adriënne Heijnen, anthropologist and dr Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, also anthropologist.

The 2006 Stefansson Memorial Lecture
The Stefansson Memorial Lecture is to be held at Dartmouth College on 1^st November 2006. Andrew C. Revkin from the New York Times calls his lecture The North Pole Was Here: On The Front Lines Of Climate Change, From The Arctic To The Beltway, .

Andrew Revkin is one of America's most honored science writers and has spent nearly a quarter century covering subjects ranging from Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami to the assault on the Amazon, from the troubled relationship of science and politics to climate change in the North Pole. He has been reporting on the environment for The New York Times since 1995, a job that has taken him to the Arctic three times in three years. In 2003, he became the first Times reporter to file stories and photos from the sea ice around the pole. He spearheaded a three-part Times series and one-hour documentary in 2005 on the transforming Arctic. In 2003, his climate coverage won the first National Academies Communication Award for print journalism, presented by the nation's eminent scientific body.

For more information see Events at Dartmouth.

Arctic Coffee Chat organized by the Icelandic Research Center
If you are interested listening to Icelanders discuss issues concerning people and change in the Arctic then feel free to come to an informal "coffee chat" at the Reykjavík Art Museum - Harbour House (Hafnarhús)  starting at 20:00, Monday 18^th September 2006. Níels Einarsson, director of the Stefansson Arctic Institute, will be there with anthropologist Gísli Pálsson (University of Iceland) enganging in a dialogue with the public.

New database
RÁDJU -The Sami Research and Project Database contains information from over 200 completed or on-going projects. The projects are dealing with the Sami people or the Sami areas. The database is maintained by the Arctic Indigenous Peoples and Sami Research Office and the Information Service of the Arctic Centre.

New project: Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
The Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) project is a new project following-up on the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR), and led by Joan Nymand Larsen, Stefansson Arctic Institute, and Peter Schweitzer, University of Alaska Fairbanks. The objective is to devise a set of social indicators that reflect key aspects of human development in the Arctic, that are tractable in terms of measurement, and that can be monitored over time at a reasonable cost in terms of labour and material resources.

A circumpolar working group has been established, and the first out of an estimated three workshops will take place in Akureyri, Iceland, on September 15-17, 2006, involving approximately 25 participants. The workshop is hosted by the Stefansson Arctic Institute.

Financial support for this project and the first workshop has been and will be received from the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Arctic Cooperation Programme, the US National Science Foundation, the University of Alaska, the government of Canada, and the Stefansson Arctic Institute.

For additional information please contact Joan Nymand Larsen, ASI secretariat, the Stefansson Arctic Institute, Borgir, Nordurslod, 600 Akureyri, Iceland. Tel: +354 460 8984, e-mail: jnl@unak.is.

Seminar in Cambridge, England on AHDR: its Reception and Future
The seminar will be in Scott Polar Research Institute on 31^st March 2006, 9:00-12:300. The aim of the seminar is to discuss the the reception and  implications of the AHDR, including follow-up activities such as the Nordic Council of Minister's supported Arctic Social Indicators project. See more.

Lecture
Dr Jim A McDonald, anthropologist, gave a lecture on Cultural Heritage, Globalization, and Collaborative Research with Aboriginal Peoples of the Circumpolar North by invitation of  Stefansson Arctic Institute on the 8^th of March 2006, at 12:00 in room L201, Sólborg, University of Akureyri. See PowerPoint show.

Images of the North: Histories - Identities - Ideas
The Reykjavik Academy in collaboration with the Reykjavik Winter Festival organizes an international conference on the images of the North in Reykjavik, Iceland, 24-26 February 2006.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore the various issues surrounding image construction, identity making and representations of the North, as well as the interconnectedness between those issues. The aim is to elucidate the multiple aspects of the idea of the North, both as a mythological space and a discursive system created and shaped by cultures outside the North as well as from within. This conference is related to the interdiciplinary research project Iceland and the Images of the North that is now well underway. See more.

New on climatic change
The Danish Polar Center (Dansk Polarcenter) has new information  on climatic change on its website. (Dec. 2005)

Nordic Council of Ministers
The Nordic Council of Ministers' Arctic Co-operation Programme 2006-2008 provides the framework for the efforts in the Arctic during this period. The application deadline for activities in 2006 is 1 December 2005. Activities must be covered by the Arctic Co-operation Programme to be eligible for funding.

The 2005 Stefansson Memorial Lecture
The Stefansson Arctic Institute in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute invites to the Stefansson Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, 1 November 2005, at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Road, Cambridge at 6:00 pm.
Dr Gísli Pálsson, Professor of Anthropology at University of Iceland gives a lecture called Travelling Passions: The Life and Legacy of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic Explorer.

Book release
The University of Manitoba Press has published a book by Gísli Pálsson: Travelling Passions.The Hidden Life of Vilhjalmur Stefansson. See more. (Sept 2005)

Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning - ICARP II
ICARP II takes place in  Copenhagen, Denmark, 10 - 12 November  2005.The goal of ICARP is to prepare Arctic research plans to guide international cooperation over the next 10-15 years. See more.

Announcement of the IASC Executive Secretary Position
The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is seeking a new Executive Secretary as the present one is retiring by 1 January 2006. Application dead-line 8 July 2005. See more.

Research funding opportunities
The European Science Foundation has announced research funding opportunities in circumpolar arctic and subarctic studies for Humanities and Social Science research (BOREAS). Deadline: Monday 27 June 2005. See www.esf.org/boreas

Encyclopedia of the Arctic
Routledge recently published Encyclopedia of the Arctic, a three volume set edidet by Dr Mark Nuttall.
The publisher's description:
"Providing rich and detailed essays on the Arctic's environment, wildlife, climate, history, exploration, resources, economics, politics, indigenous cultures and languages, conservation initiatives, and many other topics, the Encyclopedia of the Arctic is the only major work and comprehensive reference source to have yet been produced on this vast, complex, changing, and increasingly important part of the globe. The book will not only be an up-to-date interdisciplinary work of reference for all those involved in teaching or researching Arctic issues, but a fascinating and comprehensive resource for residents of the Arctic, and all those concerned with global environmental issues, sustainability, science, and human interactions with the environment."
For further information see  www.routledge-ny.com/ref/arctic/ .

Order the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR)
Copies of the full report with graphics and photographs are available for 28 USD (plus postage) and can be ordered here.
Following is the freight cost for one copy. Please choose between mailing method A or B.
to European countries:          A Priority mail (par avion): USD 14    B Economique: USD  9
to countries outside Europe:  A Priority mail (par avion): USD 24    B Economique: USD 16

The report is also available in pdf format.

Launch of the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) -  Presentations and roundtable
Place: Room I-H, Nordica Hotel, Reykjavik, Iceland
Time: November 21st 2004, 13.00-17.00
Chairman: Níels Einarsson, Stefansson Arctic Institute, AHDR Report Steering Committee Co-Chair

13.00-13.10 Opening address- Hugi Ólafsson, Icelandic Ministry for the Environment, Chair, Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group
13.10-13.45 Human Development in the Arctic: What have we learned and what comes next? - Oran Young, Univ. of California at Santa Barbara, Co-chair AHDR Report Steering Committee
13.45-14.15 Arctic Economic Systems: Gérard Duhaime, Université Laval, Québec City
14.15-14.45 Arctic Societies and Cultures - Change and Persistence: Peter Schweitzer, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
14.45-15.15 Health break
15.15-15.45 Gender issues in the Arctic: Gunhild Hoogensen, University of Tromsø
15.45-17.00 Roundtable discussion

Oran Young (moderator)
Rune Fjellheim
Priscilla Wohl
Guðfríður Lilja Grétarsdóttir
Hugh Lloyd
Joan Nymand Larsen
Sauli Rouhinen
Carl Christian Olsen (Puju)(tbc)
Rodion Sulyandziga

17.00 Reception at Nordica Hotel hosted by the Icelandic Ministry for the Environment

Arctic Human Development Report Launch Event:
A half-day seminar taking place in the afternoon (13:00-17:30) of Sunday, November 21^st at Nordica Hotel, Reykjavik, Iceland. The purpose is to present the main findings of the AHDR and initiate discussion of next steps. For further information contact AHDR project manager Joan Nymand Larsen  or co-chairs Níels Einarsson, and Oran Young.

The Institute moves 
On Saturday October 2^nd 2004 the Institute's office will be moved to the 5^th floor in a new building at the Solborg University campus. We hope everything will be in order when we start work on Monday.  
 

Northern Veche: Proceedings of the Second NRF Open Meeting
The proceedings of the 2^nd NRF in Veliky Novgorod, Russia in September 2002, have now been published. The book includes English and Russian versions and can be viewed on the NRF web site (see Publications) or ordered.  (Feb.19, 2004)

The Friendly Arctic, a Travelling Exhibition, to New York
The Friendly Arctic was first opened in  Akureyri in 2000, and has been travelling since. Next it will be opened in  Scandinavia House in New York on the 30^th of January 2004.

Vilhjálmur Stefánsson's granddaughter visits Stefansson Arctic Institute Georgina Stefansson and her husband, Frank Thistle visited Akureyri on Wednesday 17th of December. Georgina is the daughter of Alex, the son that Vilhjálmur had with Fanny Pannigabluk in 1910.  Georgina visited the farms near Akureyri where her great-grandfather and great-grandmother lived before they emigrated to Canada. She also visited the Stefansson Arctic Institute, where the photo is taken of Georgina, her husband Frank Thistle and Níels Einarsson, the director of SAI, in front of a painting of Vilhjálmur Stefansson. The Town Council of Akureyri gave a reception for Georgina, where some of her Icelandic relatives met her, brought gifts and showed photos of her relatives.  Later she and Gísli Pálsson inscribed his lately published biography about Vilhjálmur Stefánsson, Frægð og firnindi.

The Arctic Council's International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in the Arctic 
The Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council is hosting an International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Arctic: Opportunities and Obstacles for Sustainable Development, Education and Telemedicine, in the town of Akureyri on 20-21 October, 2003. 
The conference is intended to promote ICT development based on best available practices and discuss critical questions relating to the use of ICT, associated technical and social issues, and benefits to Arctic residents. Special emphasis will be given to the issues of ICT application in medicine, education, research and libraries. 
The conference will bring together individuals of different backgrounds - policy makers, academics, people from business and industry, ICT users, representatives of governmental agencies and Arctic communities - to share ideas and experiences in order to improve the quality of life and contribute to healthy and vibrant communities in Northern rural areas. Many participants at the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials' meeting in Iceland, 23-24 October, 2003, are expected to attend. 
The final program is available here. For more information see: http://vefir.unak.is/ICTConference . Contact person: Yana Alexandrova, ICT Conference Coordinator, University of Akureyri, v/Nordurslod, IS-600 Akureyri, Iceland, tel.: +354 463 0583, fax: +354 463 0589, e-mail:yana@unak.is

The Governor General of Canada gives a lecture in memory of Vilhjálmur Stefansson
On Monday, October 13^th 2003, the Governor General of Canada,  Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, will give the fourth Stefansson Memorial Lecture. The lecture's title will be: A Threshold of the Mind: The Modern North. The Governor General will be visiting Russia, Finland and Iceland with a delegation of distinguished Canadians (see more). The Stefansson Memorial Lecture is under the auspice of the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, and will be delivered in the University of Akureyri Auditorium in the Oddfellow House at Sjafnarstigur. The lecture will start at 10:00 and is open to the public. Guests are asked to be there in good time.

The University of Akureyri organizes round-table discussions in Ketilhúsið, Kaupvangstræti, the same day at 11:00. Discussions will be in English. The subject will be "Culture and Community Viability",  particularly concerning questions like " What are the necessary elements for a thriving northern community?" and "What common cultural traits do viable communities share and can others develop these traits?"  The round-table will be chaired by Þorsteinn Gunnarsson, rector of University of Akureyri and Mary Simon, Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs in Canada. Participants will be from Canada and Iceland. Presentations will be given by Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, Stefansson Arctic Institute, Sigrún Sveinbjörnsdóttir, University of Akureyri, Peter Irniq, Nunavut, and Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

Iceland's ambassador in China, Eiður Guðnason visits SAI
When ambassador Eiður Guðnason, visited the Institute on August 19th 2003 he brought good presents: a manuscript of his translation of  D.M. LeBourdais' book, Stefansson, Ambassador of the North, which he read in the Icelandic radio in 1964, the English edition of the same book and an Icelandic book with various articles on exploration, one of them by Vilhjalmur Stefansson.  

Nordic Visitors
On Monday August 18th 2003 the Institute was visited by two Nordic groups. The first group came from  Denmark, a parliamentarian committee of  science and technology. The second was the Nordic Council's Control Committee. 

Dr Philip Cronenwett decorated with an Icelandic Badge of Honor
On August 15th 2003 President of Iceland, Dr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, decorated Dr Philip N. Cronenwett with the "Falcon" Badge of Honor. Dr Cronenwett is a historian who has worked at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1979 as a Special Collections Librarian and Curator of Manuscripts, and since 2003 as Associate Director, Office of Leadership Giving. President Grímsson expressed highest gratitude to Dr Crononwett for his esteemed contribution in rebuilding and caring for explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson's library, the Stefansson Collection at Dartmouth College, and for his valuable effort to maintain Stefansson's legacy and vision. As well as engaging in research, writing articles, and delivering lectures on Stefansson’s work, Dr Cronenwett has collaborated with the Stefansson Arctic Institute in producing the traveling exhibit The Friendly Arctic. The exhibit has, following its first openings in Iceland in year 2000, traveled to both Canada and the United States of America. It is also thanks to Dr Cronenwett's initiative that Stefansson's great edited work Encyclopedia Arctica, which was never published, is now being computerized.

University of the Arctic
On February 14, 27 students from Canada, Greenland, Finland and Russia began studies in the introductory course of University of the Arctic, The Circumpolar World (BCS 100). The plan is that within the next few years, in addition to the introductory course, all three of the 6-credit core courses of the Bachelor of Circumpolar Studies will be delivered to students throughout the circumpolar north. The modes of delivery are classroom-based instructional delivery and a web-based program, augmented by a circumpolar mobility program involving both students and instructors.
See announcement in The Chronicle of Higher Education (Feb. 15, 2002)

New Website: Human Dimensions of Arctic Environments - www.thearctic.is
The aim of this project is to develop a web page focusing on European Arctic cultures and environments, with a broader comparative focus on critical issues, problems and opportunities which face the peoples of the Circumpolar North today. 
The Stefansson Arctic Institute is co-operating with a number of co-organisers who contribute with expertise, advice, writing and by designing thematic introductory chapters and overviews in the project. They also provide case studies from anthropological and other fieldwork linking global issues to local everyday realities. The co-partners are all institutions with excellent reputations in research and dissemination of information on Arctic issues, including Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and the Universities of Iceland and Akureyri. The project has received funding from  the European Commission’s Raphael Programme.
The Stefansson Arctic Institute is responsible for the overall co-ordination of the project and, upon its completion, for the design, implementation and maintainance of the resulting homepage.
There is a worldwide growing interest in the Arctic region, its environment, inhabitants and cultural heritage. The website -- with introductory chapters in English, Icelandic, Danish, French and German -- will consist of information accessible to teachers and students, researchers and policy makers, specialists and the general public.  It is meant to increase understanding of and contribute to an enlightened discourse on Arctic issues across the internet-using world.  These include the topics of sustainable development and community viability, social and environmental policy and contemporary human and environmental crises. Also included are local adaptations, indigenous rights and resource use, as well as the history of cultural interaction and Arctic exploration.  Special attention will be given to the causes and effects of pollution, global environmental change and economic globalization, especially the impacts on community viability, flexibility of vulnerable ecosystems and on cultural and biological diversity in the North. 
The website is still under construction and all comments are appreciated (stef@svs.is)

The Second Nordic Arctic Research Programme (NARP) Symposium: "The Arctic in the Anthropocene: The North Atlantic Arctic in Focus" will be held in Akureyri, Iceland, May 23-24, 2002
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
Human beings have entered the "Anthropocene", a period in which the major changes in the global biosphere are the result of human actions and the complex interactions of natural and human systems.  The Arctic is greatly affected by these rapid social and biophysical changes.  This symposium will bring together a multi-disciplinary group of scientists concerned with human-environmental relations, history and cultural viability in the North Atlantic Arctic, to present and discuss their research findings and the light they bear on the future of the region.
English language abstracts for oral presentations and posters on topics relevant to the symposium should be submitted before January 31, 2002.  Conference proceedings are to be published in a peer-reviewed, international publication.  Limited travel support is available and junior researchers are encouraged to apply.
For more information contact the conference secretary, Clayton Tinsley  (tinsley@unak.is) or Níels Einarsson, director of the Stefansson Arctic Institute, tel. +354 463 0581 (ne@svs.is)

Writing on Ice: the Ethnographic Notebooks of Vilhjalmur Stefansson
This recently published book, edited by  Dr. Gisli Palsson, is based on a study of Stefansson´s arctic diaries conducted at the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Iceland in co-operation with the Stefansson Arctic Institute. 

New Book:  Aspects of Arctic and Sub-Arctic History: Proceedings of the International Congress on the History of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region, Reykjavík, 18–21 June 1998
This book contains over sixty papers presented at the congress, which was the first international congress on the history of the arctic and sub-arctic region. The papers are by scholars from eleven countries, and between them they are related to the entire arctic and sub-arctic region. Edited by Ingi Sigurðsson and Jón Skaptason. Published by the University of Iceland Press in co-operation with the Institute of History – University of Iceland, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Iceland and the Stefansson Arctic Institute. To order contact hu@hi.is

Nordic Arctic Research Programme: Call for Proposals
3rd Announcment Deadline February 28, 2001 at 16.30. The programme is opening a third call for proposals to enhance Nordic scientific co-operation by setting up research networks, arranging workshops, promoting training and mobility of students and young scientists and launching limited pilot studies in the years 2002-2003. The current projects can also be extended.  See more

The book contains ten papers presented at the conference by scholars from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland.  The general theme of the book is how the small westnordic nations  cope in an increasingly global world, characterised  by rapid technical, economic and  social-ecological changes. Editors: Jónas G. Allansson and Ingi R. Eðvarðsson. Paperback 156 p. See more