University of Regina Northern Studies Committee
About
The UR-NSC was founded in response to a need for a review body for allocating federal northern-related funding, such as the Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP). It was formed on November 6, 2023, following approval of the university’s Executive Coordinator to the President. We meet quarterly, with meetings taking place the second week of February, May, August, and November of each year. Deadline for submission of agenda items is the first day of each month in which a meeting is held.
The purpose of the UR-NSC is three-fold. We seek to:
- highlight and support ongoing Northern-focused teaching, research, and creation activities at our institution;
- establish and maintain research and teaching-oriented networks among faculty and students engaged in northern-related professional activities;
- support student and faculty Northern research activities by identifying and (where appropriate) allocating available internal and external research funds to individual researchers and projects.
We take a multidisciplinary approach to Northern Studies. Our members represent the Arts, Humanities, Social, and Natural Sciences at the U of R. Our approach includes the ethnography of animal, plant, and landscape-human relations (Siberia, Yukon, NWT), photo-based, performance, and installation art work in and of the High Arctic (Svalbard), geological surveys (NWT, Nunavut), and biological perspectives on tree-level demographic processes and their responses to disturbances, including global climate change (Western Canada).
We promote and encourage Northern Studies by organizing (formally and informally) networking events, workshops, email notifications, and by closely collaborating with The Offices of Research Services, Partnerships & Innovation to highlight Northern research, teaching, and funding opportunities at the U of R.
We define “Northern Studies” as studies that focus on the North Circumpolar Region, including the “Arctic” and “Subarctic,” which geopolitically fall into the territories of the “Arctic Eight” (Canada, Finland, Denmark [with Greenland and Faroe Islands], Iceland, Norway, Russia, and the United States [Alaska]). For most projects, we define our Northern geographic parameters following the NSTP boundary, which “includes those regions of Canada where there is both permafrost and ground ice, as per the map ‘Permafrost’, contained within the 5th Edition (1978 to 1995) of the National Atlas of Canada.”Although we support research in the Russian Arctic, we are unable to liaise with projects relating to the Russian Federation and its institutions for such time until Canadian sanctions pertaining to research collaboration in these territories have been lifted.
We encourage our undergraduate and graduate research students at the U of R to apply for federal and other sources of northern-specific funding for their work. Below you will find a few opportunities:
Northern Scientific Training Program (POLAR) – All Disciplines
Polar Knowledge Canada (POLAR) offers the Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP),
intended to supplement existing funding held by students with fieldwork in the North. Awards range between $2,500 and $3,000, maxing at $6,000. Applicants must be enrolled in a Canadian degree program and be Canadian citizens or permanent residents. POLAR’s geographic parameters apply (this includes La Ronge, Buffalo Narrows, and La Loche, SK). Researchers can apply here. For additional questions, please consult the NSTP Manual. UR-NSC reviews and forwards applications to POLAR.
CNST Scholarship (ACUNS) - All Disciplines
The Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) offers a doctoral research scholarship through the Canadian Northern Studies Trust in the value of $10,000. It is intended for researchers planning to write a thesis or equivalent, including comparative and interdisciplinary studies, focusing on northern issues. For more information, download the guidelines. Applications are made directly through ACUNS at: https://acuns-awards.smapply.ca
Dr. Weston Blake Jr. Memorial Scholarship (ACUNS) - All Disciplines
The Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) offers a doctoral research scholarship through the Blake Family trust in the value of $10,000. It is intended for students planning to write a thesis or equivalent, including comparative and interdisciplinary studies, focusing on northern issues, including a direct northern field research experience. For more information, see the guidelines.
Kay and Peter McGeer Scholarship for Northern Research (ACUNS) - All Disciplines
The Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) offers a graduate research scholarship through the McGeer Family trust in the value of $3,000. It is intended for students planning to write a thesis or equivalent, including comparative and interdisciplinary studies contributing to the North, and who are developing local relationships and knowledge-exchange, involving Indigenous community members and youths. Northerners (NWT, YT, northern provinces) are given special consideration. For more information, see the guidelines
Dr. Jim McDonald Scholarship for Northern Research (ACUNS) - Social Sciences/Humanities
The Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) offers a graduate research scholarship for the social sciences and humanities through its own fund in the value of $5,000. It is intended for students planning to write a thesis or equivalent. Special consideration is given to projects aiming at community-based and interdisciplinary research and local Indigenous collaboration that contribute to the North. For more information, see the guidelines.
Gunther Abrahamson Caribou Research and Management Award (BQCMB) – All Disciplines
The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board (BQCMB) offers a biannual research scholarship in the value of $5,000. It is intended for research contributing to the understanding of barren-ground caribou, habitat, and conservation/management. Traditional knowledge studies and natural science research are both encouraged. Students should be residents of a community within either of the herds’ range. Fieldwork is not required. For more information, see the guidelines.
International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)
We advise students to monitor the news feed at IASC for travel and research funding opportunities at https://iasc.info.
Dr. Alex Oehler, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology (committee chair)
Alex is a circumpolar ethnographer with special interests in human-animal and human-landscape relations. His work has looked at how societal ideas (religious, philosophical, practical) converge with how people relate to animals within and outside of their households. He is interested in interspecies communication and collaboration, including how hunters interpret the movements of animals and vice-versa, but also how people communicate with land features and vegetation all around the North.
Dr. Sarah Abbott, Associate Professor, Department of Film (committee member)
Sarah is a filmmaker in multiple genres, and she teaches film production, direction, and research methods. She is an active voice on engaging climate change through creativity, community, and intervention. Her research focuses on human-tree relations, citizen-ethnography, sensuous scholarship, relational ontologies, and environmental empathy. Her work on plant sentience takes her from research with laboratory scientists to experiential interactions with Indigenous Elders and knowledge holders of the Western Canadian Arctic.
Dr. Risa Horowitz, Full Professor, Visual Arts (MAP) (committee member)
Risa is a visual and media artist and professor of visual arts. Her practice blurs boundaries between expert-amateur, hobby-work, and leisure-productivity. She works in photo and lens-based media and is interested in conceptual, performance, and durational practices. Her work has engaged with themes of time and its representation, art and science, and critical landscape theories. As visual artist and creative writer, her work is inspired by northern landscapes. Some of her projects continue to take her to Svalbard, Norway.
Dr. Mark Vanderwel, Associate Professor, Biology (committee member)
Mark is a forest ecologist interested in tree demography, forest dynamics, and global change. He studies how tree-level demographic processes interact with disturbance to create changing patterns of structure, biomass, and diversity within forest stands and landscapes. He takes a quantitative approach to develop process-based models, projecting how forest dynamics emerge from variation in demographic performance. His work regularly takes him to Western Canada, including parts of the Northwest Territories.
Dr. Jenna Jia, Associate Professor, Engineering (committee member)
Jenna is a chemical engineer and the Program Chair of Energy & Process Systems Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. Among the many areas of her research expertise are processes such as Thermal Recovery, Wax and Hydrate Precipitation and Deposition, Carbon Dioxide Sequestration, and Refinery Process Design and Optimization. Many of the natural resources and processes under study by Jenna and her research group are situated in northern regions.
Dr. Kathryn M. Bethune, P. Geo., Full Professor, Geology (committee member)
Kathryn is a geologist with expertise in the field of structural geology and tectonics of orogenic belts. Her work has focused on Precambrian orogens of the Canadian shield, interaction between structure and metamorphism during orogenesis, microstructures and deformation behaviour of rocks, applications of geochronology in tectonics, and structural controls on mineral deposits. Her regular fieldwork takes Jenna and her students all across the Canadian North, including remote locations in Nunavut.
Dr. Joyce McBeth, Assistant Professor, Geology (member)
Joyce is a geologist with expertise is in microbial interactions with the geosphere, including metal(loid) and hydrocarbon contaminant remediation and metal transformations mediated by microbes in mine wastes. Her current research includes studies of microbes in mine tailings and ores and wastewater treatment systems and synchrotron approaches applied to mine-related remediation. She has collaborated on the archaeology and toxicology of lead, copper, and zinc in thumbnail and toenail samples of crew members who died in the historic Franklin expeditionContact
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our chairperson:
Dr. Alex Oehler
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology