UAF Arctic and Northern Studies Contact Information
Administrators
Brandon Boylan, Ph.D.
Director of Arctic and Northern Studies
Professor of Political Science
GRUE 613B
Courses taught by Dr. Boylan:
- PS F452 / ACNS F652 - International Relations of the North
- ACNS F601 - Research Methods and Sources in the North
- ACNS F698 - Non-thesis Research / Project
- ACNS F699 - Thesis
Research interests:
International relations, international security, political violence, separatist movements, Arctic politics and security.
Philip Wight, Ph.D.
Assistant Director of Arctic and Northern Studies
Assistant Professor of History
GRUE 613A
Courses taught:
-
ACNS F201 - The Circumpolar North: An Introductory Overview
-
HIST F411 / ACNS F611 - Environmental History
-
HIST F453 / HONR F453 / ACNS F453 / ACNS F653 - Fire, Ice & the Fate of Humanity: A History of Energy & Climate Change
-
HIST F461 / ACNS F661 - History of Alaska
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HIST F483 / HIST F683 / ACNS F683 - 20th Century History of the Circumpolar North
Dr. Wight advises the B.A. and Graduate Certificate programs.
Research interests:
Alaskan history, modern circumpolar history, energy systems, political economy, mobility
and infrastructure, and climate change
Affiliated Faculty
Walkie Charles, Ph.D.
Director of Alaska Native Language Center
Associate Professor of Yup'ik
BROOKS 107A
Courses taught:
- YUP F101X - Elementary Central Yup'ik I
- YUP F102X - Elementary Central Yup'ik II
- YUP F201 - Intermediate Central Yup'ik I
- YUP F202 - Intermediate Central Yup'ik II
- YUP F301 - Advanced Central Yup'ik
- YUP F415 - Additional Topics in Advanced Yup'ik
Research specialties and interests:
Dynamic Assessment, Sociocultural Theory, Vygotskian Approaches to Second Language Pedagogy, Second/Foreign Language Assessment (Classroom-based assessment), Theories of Second Language Acquisition, Indigenous Knowledges
Daryl Farmer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English
GRUE 862
Courses taught:
- ENGL F270X - Introduction to Creative Writing
- ENGL F377 - Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction
- ENGL F470 - Topics in Creative Writing
- ENGL F661 - Mentored Teaching in English
- ENGL F675 - Internship in Scholarly Publishing
- ENGL F684 - Forms of Nonfiction Prose
Research specialties and interests:
Nonfiction and fiction writing and Literature of the US West.
Alexander Hirsch, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science and Director of Honors College and Climate Scholars
Courses taught:
-
Comparative Indigenous Rights
-
US Environmental Politics
Research specialties and interests:
Zoë Marie Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Art
FINE ART 409
Courses taught:
- ART F261 - History of World Art I
- ART F262X - History of World Art II
- ART F363 - History of Modern Art
- ART F425 / ART F625 / ACNS F425 / ACNS F625 - Visual Images of the North
- ART F463 / ART F663 - Seminar in Art History
Research specialties:
20th Century art, immigrant artistic communities, art created in times of conflict
Tyler Kirk, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History
GRUE 605B
Courses taught by Dr. Kirk:
- HST F315 - Europe: 1900 - 1945
- HST F316 - Europe since 1945
- HIST 466 / ACNS 466 / ACNS F666 - The Russian Arctic
- ACNS F484 - Perspectives on the North
- HIST F600 / ACNS F600 - Perspectives on the North
- HIST F699 - Thesis
Michael Koskey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies Programs
BROOKS 306F
Courses taught:
- Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights
- Field Research Methods
- Documenting Indigenous Knowledge
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- Education and Socioeconomic Change
- Sustainable Livelihoods and Community Wellbeing
Research specialties and interests:
Oral history, traditional knowledge, ethnohistory, culture change, decolonization, resource use and allocation, community-based participatory research, cultural and intellectual property rights, and indigenous cosmology/mythology.
Yoko Kugo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies Programs
BROOKS 306E
Courses taught:
- ANTH 390A Arctic and Subarctic Ethnography (Central Yup'ik Cultures)
- CCX 612 Traditional Ecological Knowledge
-
CCX 619 Cultural Atlases
Research specialties and interests:
Alaska Native food lifeways, Alaska Native language (Central Yup'ik), Alaskan history,
Indigenous place names and way of knowing, oral history, community-based participatory
research, cultural anthropology, geography, and Japanese pioneers in Alaska.
Amy Lovecraft, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science, Director of the Center for Arctic Policy Studies
GRUE 602B
Courses taught:
- PS 300X - Ethics and Society
- PS 303 - Politics and the Judicial Process
- PS F462 / PS F662 / ACNS F662 - Alaska Government and Politics
- PS 499 - Senior Thesis
Research specialties and interests:
Policy research: wildland fire, sea ice, marine mammals, freshwater systems & transnational environmental regimes; Environmental political theory addressing rapid change and the far North.
Russell Luke, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
GRUE 601B
- PS F101 - Introduction to American Government and Politics
- PS F302 - Congress and Public Policy
- PS F403/ACNS F603 - Public Policy
American politics, public opinion, political psychology, research methods
Leslie McCartney, M.A.
Professor of Library Science, Curator of Oral History
- ANTH F470 / ANTH F670 / ACNS F470 / ACNS F670 - Oral Sources: Issues in Documentation
Chanda Meek, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
GRUE 603B
Courses taught:
- PS F101X - Introduction to American Government and Politics
- PS F447 / PS F647 / ACNS F647 - U.S. Environmental Politics
- PS F469 / PS F669 / ACNS F669 - Arctic Politics and Governance
- PS F499 - Senior Thesis
Research specialties and interests:
Resilience of Northern social-ecological systems, natural resource & environmental policy & politics, human dimensions of wildlife management, indigenous-state power-sharing arrangements, cross-scale policy implementation
Neall Pogue
Assistant Professor of American History
GRUE 604C
Jennifer Schell, Ph.D.
Professor of English
GRUE 854
Courses taught:
- ENGL F307 - Survey of American Literature: Civil War to the Present
- ENGL F310 - Literary Criticism
- ENGL F360 - Multiethnic American Literature
- ENGL F612 - Studies in American Literature after 1918
- ENGL F620 / ACNS F620 - Images of the North
Research specialties and interests:
Circumpolar literature and film, ecogothic and eco-horror, critical animal studies, extinction studies, climate writing, and environmental justice.
Viktor Shmagin
Assistant Professor of History
GRUE 606C
HIST 333: Foundations of Japanese History
Jeremy Speight, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Political Science
GRUE 602A
Courses taught:
- PS F202 - Democracy and Global Society
- PS F222 - Political Science Research Methods
- PS F458 / PS F658 / ACNS F658 - Comparative Environmental Politics
- PS F475 - Internship in Public Affairs
- PS F499 - Senior Thesis
- ACNS F689 - Thesis Writing Workshop
- PS F699 - MA Thesis
Research specialties and interests:
Yue Sun
Assistant Professor of Upper Strings
FINE ARTS 209
Courses Taught:
- MUS F223X / ACNS F223X - Alaska Native Music
Sveta Yamin-Pasternak
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
BUNNELL 305A
Courses Taught:
- ANTH F100X - Individual, Culture, and Society
- ANTH F336 / EBOT F336 - Ethnomycology
- ANTH F402 - Anthropology of Art
- ANTH F610 / ACNS F610 - Northern Indigenous Peoples and Contemporary Issues
- ANTH F446 / ANTH F646 - Economic Anthropology
Food and culture, ethnomycology, anthropology of art, Circumpolar North, post-Soviet studies
Professor Emeriti
In Memoriam
