Drawing Lessons from COVID-19 in the Arctic

Jennifer Spence, Marya Rozanova-Smith, Andrey Petrov, and Justin Barnes — Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Jennifer Spence (left) with co-presenters Marya Rozanova-Smith, Andrey Petrov, and Justin Barnes during their breakout session, “The Arctic During the Global Pandemic: What Have We Learned?” at the 2022 Arctic Circle Assembly.

In July 2023, the Arctic Yearbook launched a special issue on “Arctic Pandemics: COVID-19 and other Pandemic Experiences and Lessons Learned.” The volume includes fifteen peer-reviewed articles and ten shorter contributions and is available open access on the Arctic Yearbook website.

“The idea for this special issue of the Arctic Yearbook started with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Jennifer Spence, who co-chaired the editorial board with Andrey Petrov and Heather Exner-Pirot. “We realized that the pandemic was global, but the experiences and impacts in the Arctic would be distinct.” The volume is an effort to remember and learn from Arctic experiences with COVID-19 and other pandemics in order to inform responses to future pandemics and other regional and global shocks.

In a region already at risk due to underdeveloped healthcare systems, infrastructure deficits, difficult socioeconomic conditions, rapid climate change, and colonial injustices, COVID-19 severely disrupted daily life in Arctic communities. Yet, on the whole, Arctic communities experienced better pandemic outcomes than their southern counterparts in the same states.

This special journal issue examines the health, social, cultural, and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and public health responses in the Arctic, placing an emphasis on Indigenous and community-based experiences and perspectives. The findings point not only to unique vulnerabilities of Arctic communities, but also to unique strengths that may inform responses to future pandemics and other regional and global shocks.

The authors and editorial board reflect a diversity of Arctic regions, disciplines, and ancestries, with many Indigenous and Northern contributors. The special issue features work by early-career scholars such as Arctic Initiative Research Assistant Sai Sneha Venkata Krishnan, who co-authored “The State of Research Focused on COVID-19 in the Arctic: A Meta-Analysis” with Spence.

“As COVID-19 increasingly is seen as a thing of the past, it is critical that we continue to dedicate time, effort and resources to learning from these experiences and ensuring that it informs our future actions,” said Spence.

A launch event will be held on September 7, 2023.