FYS552

This course focuses on the Arctic as a region where multiple peoples, histories, politics, and economics intersect, impacting the four million people who currently live there. Many areas in the Arctic have a history of exploration, colonization and exploitation, the legacies of which are still felt by the 10% of the population that identifies itself as indigenous. Currently, because of climate change the Arctic is warming faster than many other areas in the world, a development that has already begun to impact the lives of people and animals in the region. This course is organized around topics where students explore the opportunities and challenges of the region from different disciplines, including political science, anthropology, economics and ecology. Among the topics discussed are: history and politics; the role of western science versus traditional knowledge; extraction of oil, gas and minerals; culture, nature and tourism, and global politics.

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