The symposium sessions approach the overarching themes through addressing important questions and concerns from a regional as well as global perspective. The presentations focus on topics, such as discourses, theories and methods, on the Arctic from different stakeholders, disciplines, methods or different conceptualizations. After the Finnish sessions in Rovaniemi and Inari, the travelling symposium continues onwards to Kirkenes, Norway and from there to Apatity and Kirovsk in Russia. The participants attending the touring symposium are mostly early career scientists selected based on applications from the Nordic countries, Russia, Central Europe, as well as from Canada and the USA.

The Calotte Academy has been arranged annually since 1991 with an aim to bring together early-career scientists and senior researchers with different academic backgrounds and in different stages of their academic careers, as well as other experts, local and regional decision-makers. 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 policy-makers, practitioners and other experts, and the international scientific community. 

The co-founder of the Calotte Academy, Professor Lassi Heininen, sees the added value of the Calotte Academy in its explicit aim to draw up a more holistic approach and create an alternative model for conventional academic conferences, where the time allocated for genuine discussion often remains very limited. The Calotte Academy has also become a method for research, supervision and learning.

The Calotte Academy 2018 is arranged in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Lapland, Sámi Educational Centre of Inari, Barents Institute at UiT – Arctic University of Norway, Luzin Institute for Economic Studies at Kola Science Center of Russian Academy of Sciences and the Khibiny Educational and Scientific Stations of Moscow State University. It is a part of the activities of Thematic Network on Geopolitics and Security. The 2018 Academy receives financial support from Nordic Council of Ministers and International Arctic Science Committee.

 

Additional information:

Lassi Heininen,

Professor of Arctic Politics, University of Lapland

E-mail: lassi.heininen@ulapland.fi - Tel. +358-40-484 4215