IPY Human DimensionsIPY Human DimensionsResearchResearch

Anna KertullaAnna KertullaProgram Manager, Arctic Social SciencesProgram Manager, Arctic Social Sciences

Arctic Sciences SectionArctic Sciences SectionOffice of Polar ProgramsOffice of Polar Programs

Social and Cultural Dimensions Social and Cultural Dimensions of IPYof IPY

“To Investigate cultural, historical, and social processes that shape the sustainability of circumpolar human societies and to identify their unique contributions to global cultural diversity and citizenship” (ICSU IPY Theme 6)

IASSAIASSA

First IPY stations 1881-1841

• 100 EoIs on human and social studies, 20 outreach and education, 14 crosscutting.

• 8 major research areas: Change, Northern Resources, New risks and stresses, Transitions and Boarder Zones, Rapid Change, Local and Indigenous Visions, Preservation of IPY Legacy, Science Infrastructure.

Focus of IASSA IPYFocus of IASSA IPY• Addresses social and human issues relevant to polar

residents and indigenous communities.

• Scientific “inclusiveness” – an opportunity for local residents to become research partners.

• Integration of social and human data with information generated from other fields of polar research.

• Enhance public awareness and understanding of scientific work.

• Themes: Governance, social and environmental sustainability (“wellness”), cultural and linguistic diversity, health and living conditions, and national policy making.

Arctic Social Sciences ProgramArctic Social Sciences Program

• SEARCH – Responding to Change

• BEST – Human Dimensions of Bering Ecosystems

• General Social Science Survey – Polar Module

• Documenting Endangered Languages

• BOREAS – ESF’s Northern Regions Program

Human Dimensions of BEST

• Bering Sea residents as active partners

• Human-environmental dynamics

• Social & Cultural Change

Documenting Endangered LanguagesDocumenting Endangered Languages

Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities. Of the 6,000 languages spoken today,fully half are not being taught to children. Every two weeks an elder dies and carries into the grave the last syllable of an ancient tongue. Within a generation or two we are losing half of humanity's social, cultural and intellectual legacy.

Dr. Wade Davis

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence

IPY and DELIPY and DEL

• NSF (SBE, OPP, and ISE) – Research and Outreach: 26 awards, 4 Arctic.

• NEH – Research Fellowships and Film: 13 awards, 4 Arctic.

• Smithsonian - Archives

ESF & IPYESF & IPY“BOREAS: Histories from the North:

environments, movements, narratives”

BOREASBOREAS

• Research funding opportunities in circumpolar Arctic and Sub-Arctic studies for Humanities and Social Science research (BOREAS)

• ESF EUROCORES Program: Canada, Denmark (with Greenland), Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden (KVHAA), and the United States.

• The European Science Foundation (ESF) is launching a Call for Outline Proposals for Collaborative Research Projects to be undertaken within the EUROCORES program BOREAS.

Historical images from the Russian report on IPY 1881-1883