25 March 2025 | 16:00 - 18:00 (MDT)
Open Session - HYBRID
Room: UMC Fourth Floor - 425
Organisers: Paul Castañeda Dower (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA); Sonja Castañeda Dower (University of Chicago, USA); Jessica Rich (Virginia Tech University, USA)
Session Description:
A review of top journals in social science disciplines reveals a near-total absence of Arctic-focused research. This session focuses on related challenges:
- Social scientists face career penalties for not prioritizing solo-authored research and publications, which are highly valued in their disciplines,
- Challenges in applying the full range of social science methodologies in collaborative Arctic research,
- Narrow inclusion of social science and Indigenous perspectives,
- Restricted access to graduate studies and academia for Indigenous and other Arctic-based people.
We invite proposals that highlight these issues and/or present actionable solutions. Discussions may focus on past, ongoing, or planned research related to one or more session themes:
- Professional Disincentives: Address challenges for social scientists, such as loss of credibility in their discipline and marginalization in multi-disciplinary teams.
- Rigorous Methodologies: Acknowledge the wide range of social science methodologies: critical theory to challenge prevailing power structures, longitudinal studies for detailed, long-term insights, ethnography for deep cultural understanding and generative findings, formal models, complex systems analysis, econometric models, large-N surveys, and field experiments for robust analytical frameworks.
- Indigenous Knowledge Inclusion: Recognize challenges and propose strategies for meaningfully incorporating Indigenous knowledge, e.g. by advocating for longer proposal time-frames and longer-term social science fieldwork.
- Representation Challenges: Highlight the stark underrepresentation of Indigenous and Arctic people in social sciences (e.g. according to the Alaska Native Knowledge Network, no Alaska Native has completed a PhD in key disciplines like economics or political science). Discuss ways to enhance and extend mentorship and community engagement to improve representation.