Fulbright Arctic Initiative IV Inaugural Meeting in Norway

We at Fulbright Iceland are very excited about Fulbright Arctic Initiative IV and the brand new cross-disciplinary cohort of twenty scholars from six Arctic nations. Iceland has for the first time THREE members in this cohort of outstanding scholars from across the Arctic – Anna Karlsdóttir, Rachael Johnstone and Sigrún Sigurðardóttir. We also look forward to hosting Mariah Seater, one of the U.S. scholars, next year.

The group had its inaugural meeting in September and travelled around the remote north of Norway along with two co-lead scholars and Fulbright Commission executive directors, as well as ECA and IIE representatives. The program started in Tromsö with meetings with representatives of the Arctic Council Secretariat, Indigenous People’s Secretariat, Norwegian Polar Institute, American Presence Post, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and experts from The Arctic University of Norway (UiT). Additionally, Tromsö provided opportunities for the cohort members to get to know each other a bit and start to organize their working groups. Throughout the week, the lead scholars and EDs provided workshops and presentations to help prepare them for the work ahead. Participants travelled to Alta, Kautokeino and Karasjok, with opportunities to meet local people and visit institutions, such as the UiT Alta, Alta Museum, Samisk Högskole, Sami University College, International Arctic Science Committee and the Sami Parliament. As one scholar put it, she had learned more in this week than she could learn in a whole year sitting at home. We can’t wait to see what the cohort comes up with over the 18-month program, both in their individual research and the group policy work.