Climate change is transforming the Arctic. How can we as researchers and policymakers help communities build resilience to these shocks and stressors? Join the Arctic Initiative for a workshop on how we understand and operationalize the concept of resilience, how to support community-driven research, and the mechanisms that support connections between community action and policy-making. Featured speakers include Joel Clement, Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow; Jennifer Spence, Arctic Initiative Associate; Brittany Janis, Arctic Initiative Research Manager and Justin Barnes, Associate Editor of the Arctic Yearbook. Networking reception for students to follow.

Attendance: In-person attendance is limited to Harvard ID holders. Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Elizabeth Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Registration: Please RSVP at the link below. Registration will remain open until the event begins.

Join the Arctic Initiative team for Arctic Climate Week at the Harvard Kennedy School! The week will feature events dedicated to understanding the climate impacts in the Arctic and their global implications. Register for Arctic Climate week events here. 

Over the past five days over thirty Indigenous Youth from around the circumpolar Arctic have worked together, learned together, and innovated together to come up with solutions to challenges facing their communities. Join us to see the final presentations of a few of these young leaders.

Join for a brief history of the founding of this collaboration, which began through the work of the late Harvard Professor, James J. McCarthy. Followed by Arctic Innovation presentations by selected Indigenous Youth participants, who will showcase their solutions for their communities. 

The Arctic Resilience Forum will be convened every Wednesday from 11:30am – 1:00pm (Eastern Time) over a series of ten weeks.  The online series will engage the broadest audience possible in conversations about how to build the resilience of Arctic communities and ecosystems across a variety of focus areas. 

This October 14th Session, the second in the series, will focus on Arctic Food Security, an issue which lies at the foundation of resilience as it relates to caloric and nutritional needs as well as important cultural practices around food production, harvesting, and consumption.

A Climate Week Event co-organized by the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Arctic Initiative

This session focuses on a warming-driven phenomenon—the rapid thawing of Arctic permafrost—that is contributing simultaneously to the most vexing of Arctic warming’s impacts both in the region and around the world. This session will target experts and non-experts who are interested in understanding the science and policy issues at the heart of this widely underestimated facet of the global climate-change challenge.

Register here.

Study Group Leader: Joel Clement, Senior Fellow, Arctic Initiative

The Arctic Knowledge Systems Study Group will explore ways to collaboratively employ indigenous and scientific knowledge to improve resilience in the Arctic. It will consist of 6 sessions in which we will discuss inclusion of indigenous perspectives and how to improve for the future. All sessions will be held on Tuesdays beginning September 15 from 12:00pm - 1:00pm (ET).

Space is limited! To apply to join the study group please email Brittany Janis your resume and 100 words on why you are interested in participating. 

Moderator: Joel Clement, Senior Fellow, Arctic Initiative

Speakers: Gunn-Britt Retter, Head, Arctic and Environmental Unit, Saami Council

Deenaalee Hodgdon, Student, Brown University; Indigenous Activist

Raina Thiele, Founder and President; Thiele Strategies

Join the Arctic Initiative for an engaging and illuminating conversation with three indigenous leaders: Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council; Deenaalee Hodgdon, Brown University student and indigenous activist, who is a Deg Hit'an Athabaskan and Supiaq woman from the villages of Anvik and South Naknek, Alaska; and Raina Thiele, Founder and President of Thiele Strategies who was born and raised in Alaska and is Dena'ina Athabascan and Yup'ikas.

Please RSVP to Brittany_Janis@hks.harvard.edu.