September 13, 2024
In the Field: Understanding the impact of Arctic militarization on Indigenous communities
Mia Bennett, a University of Washington assistant professor of geography, was one of 20 scholars selected for the Fulbright Arctic IV Initiative.Mia Bennett
Mia Bennett, University of Washington assistant professor of geography, will spend a week this month in Norway as part of the orientation for the Fulbright Arctic IV Initiative.
Bennett is one of 20 scholars selected to collaborate on multi-disciplinary research over the next 18 months. The Fulbright Arctic Initiative focuses on research and community engagement concerning policy issues in the Arctic region, such as security, energy and climate change.
The scholars will first convene in Tromsø, the largest city in northern Norway, to visit institutions including the Arctic Council and the Arctic Indigenous Peoples Secretariat. Then, they will travel to the interior of northern Norway, where there are many Indigenous Sámi communities. They’ll visit the municipalities of Alta, Kautokeino and Karasjok, meeting with people at Sámi Parliament, Sámi University College and more.
Bennett is a political geographer who researches the geopolitics of infrastructure development in the Arctic and orbital space, with a focus on Indigenous empowerment, the influence of Asian political powers, and satellite observations.
As a Fulbright Arctic Scholar, Bennett will work with Indigenous and local northern communities in Norway to understand the impact of Arctic militarization in the face of renewed tensions with Russia. She’ll return to Norway with the initiative in 2025.
Have you visited this site before?
Mia Bennett: I’ve spent a fair amount of time in and around Tromsø, the biggest city in northern Norway, for work, travel, and volunteering. I’ve attended an annual conference on the Arctic in Tromsø every few years since 2013, and I also spent a month working on a horse farm an hour south of the city in 2022.
These experiences have allowed me to witness how much northern Norway has changed in the past decade or so, especially as tensions in the Arctic between the U.S. and Russia have ratcheted upwards, and as the Arctic has become more of a global tourism destination. However, I’ve never been to Alta, Kautokeino and Karasjok, where our program will also take us, so I’m very much looking forward to that.
What do you hope to learn?
MB: I hope to learn from the Sámi people, who we will meet on their traditional lands in northern Norway, about both their history and where they see the future is headed.
Sámi reindeer herders are engaged in an ongoing struggle against the wind power industry since turbines take up a great amount of land that could otherwise be used for herding. Global conversations often overlook the impacts of the green transition on Indigenous communities and lands, but in the Arctic, the issue is front and center.
What’s something you really enjoy about doing this field work — especially something that might not occur to most people?
MB: Northern Norway is far warmer and less remote than equivalent latitudes in Alaska or Canada. Its cities and small towns have incredible universities, museums, restaurants, and all sorts of amenities more associated with cities down south. What I really enjoy, though, is that once you get outside of town, you’re suddenly thrust into the tundra or on top of a fjord, and all you can see are glacially carved landscapes that only the Sámi and their reindeer truly know how to cross.
More generally, is there anything you find surprising or enlightening about doing field work?
MB: What I always find eye–opening about traveling in the Arctic is seeing how the region is connected to the rest of the world — even in the remotest settlements. Buying Ecuadorian bananas in Siberia or eating kimchi with maktak (whale skin and blubber) in Alaska offer reminders that while the region is far from the world’s political and economic centers, humanity’s drive towards connection, exchange and encounter has linked even the most distant corners of the Earth.
At the same time, for the Arctic, being brought into global circuits through extraction, colonization and imperialism has often greatly harmed local cultures and ecologies. Spending time doing fieldwork in the Arctic makes it possible to learn from people and places in the region the consequences of connectivity, both good and bad.
For more information, contact Bennett at miabenn@uw.edu
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Geography • In the Field • Mia Bennett
