The symposium sessions approach the overarching themes through addressing regionally important questions and concerns. The presentations focus on topics such as mining, indigenous people’s rights and alternative conceptualizations of security. After the Finnish sessions, the travelling symposium will continue onwards to Salla and from there to Apatity and Murmansk in Russia and to Kirkenes, Norway before returning to Rovaniemi via Inari on the 7th of June. The participants attending the touring symposium are mostly early career scientists selected based on applications from the North Calotte area, and Central Europe and Russia, as well as from Canada and USA.

The Calotte Academy has been arranged annually since 1991 with an aim to bring together students, other experts, local stakeholders as well as scientists with different academic backgrounds and in different stages of their academic careers. The founder of the Calotte Academy, Professor Lassi Heininen, sees the added value of the Calotte Academy in its explicit aim to create an alternative model for conventional academic conferences where the time allocated for genuine discussion often remains very limited. The Academy also aims to contribute to discussions and debates over regional development through inviting local politicians and stakeholders to participate in the sessions with the intention of sharing research results and insights, creating networks and fostering dialogue between the local actors and the international scientific community. 

The Calotte Academy 2015 is arranged in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland, Sámi Educational Centre of Inari, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Community Planning at University of Tromsø, and Luzin Institute for Economic Studies at Kola Science Center and Karelian Science Center of Russian Academy of Sciences. It is a part of the activities of the UArctic and Northern Research Forum joint Thematic Network on Geopolitics and Security.  The Calotte Academy receives financial support from University of Lapland, Inari Municipal Business & Development Nordica and Norwegian Barents Secretariat.

Additional information:

Lassi Heininen, Professor in Arctic Politics, University of Lapland
lassi.heininen@ulapland.fi
040 484 4215