The Arctic-2030 BANHER project is a research-based teaching consortium funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UArctic’s north2north support mechanism. It was developed in 2020 by the department of northern studies at the University of Tromsø (UiT) and was planned to last from 2023 until 2025/2026. One of the project’s main goals is to facilitate excellent fieldwork and experiential learning approaches across national boundaries in the circumpolar north. It is aimed at students and scholars.
In January 2025 UiT, Trent University, University of Alaska Anchorage, Harvard Kennedy School, Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI) and University of Bergen (UiB) arranged a broad spectre of activities in Tromsø.
Different events have been organised, such as the scientific session “Urban Arctic Communities Amid Geopolitical and Economic uncertainty”, a two-day program where many of the Arctic-2030 BANHER members presented their research outcome. Additionally, there has been the Arctic Frontiers Student Forum (AFSF) in which 30 students from all over the Arctic participated. The side-event “Explorations in Circumarctic studies” research symposium was set up to close the BANHER research initiative on “sustainable development of Urban Arctic Places in times of Geopolitical Uncertainty” – a timeline of publications in the Journal of Northern studies.
During the AFSF, Arctic governance and the future of the Arctic Council was addressed in relation to the upcoming chair change, where the Kingdom of Denmark is superseding the Norwegian chair. The position of Greenland has been thoroughly discussed, as well as the interest of the new US-administration in purchasing the Greenlandic territory. Finally, the question and importance of “trust” was brought up, as the expectation of cross sectorial engagements at universities is getting higher – How does this affect research and teaching? How does it contribute to society more generally?
An interdisciplinary group of researchers has organised the events and was involved in teaching, supervising as well as being jury members on the final AFSF groupwork presentations. Among them Peter Haugseth (UiT, project leader BANHER), Heather Nicol (TrentU), Diane Hirshberg (UAlaska/Anchorage), Douglas Causey (Harvard Kennedy School), Knut Rio (UiB), Serafima Andreeva (FNI), Ron Doel (Florida State University/Smithsonian), Nick Glesby (TrentU), Rasmus G. Bertelsen (UiT), Urban Wråkberg (UiT, BANHER NSRG leader) and Per Kåre Jakobsen (UiT, BANHER project coordinator).
The AFSF in Tromsø was the second Arctic-2030 BANHER student workshop. Similar activities were already arranged last October in Akureyri and Reykjavik by the University of Akureyri. During this edition, participants cooperated with student networks on Iceland such as ARCADE, attended to the Arctic Circle Assembly and engaged in place-based entrepreneurship discussions.
The next event “Borders in the North: Intersecting differences in Alaska (US) borderlands” will take place from March 28th to April 4th, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska.
Contact: peter.haugseth@uit.no - heathernicol@trentu.ca
Read more on Arctic-2030 BANHER here