UAF Arctic and Northern Studies Contact Information

Banner image of the directors of the program as well as Alaskan scenes

Administrators

Brandon Boylan, Ph.D.

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
Dr. Boylan advises the M.A. and Interdisciplinary Studies Ph.D. programs.

Research interests:
International relations, international security, political violence, separatist movements, Arctic politics and security.

View Curriculum Vitae
Philip Wight, Ph.D.

Philip Wight, Ph.D.

Assistant Director of Arctic and Northern Studies

Assistant Professor of History

GRUE 604B

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 
  • 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 

View Curriculum Vitae

 

Affiliated Faculty

Walkie Charles, Ph.D.

Walkie Charles, Ph.D.

Director of Alaska Native Language Center

Associate Professor of Yup'ik

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.

Daryl Farmer, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of English

GRUE 846

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.

John Heaton, Ph.D.

John Heaton, Ph.D.

Professor of History

Courses taught:

  • HIST F131 - History of the U.S.
  • HIST F132X - History of the U.S.
  • HIST F361 - Early American History
  • HIST F362X - History of the United States 1815 -1877
  • HIST F434 - Topics in History
  • HIST F475 / ACNS F675 - Historiography Capstone 
  • HIST F476 - Senior Thesis Capstone

Research specialties and interests:

Native American economics and culture, Native American history

Alexander Hirsch, Ph.D.

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:

Indigenous decolonization in Western Settler States, critical theory, transitional justice

Zoë Marie Jones, Ph.D.

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.

Tyler Kirk, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of History

GRUE 606B

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.

Michael Koskey, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies Programs

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.

Yoko Kugo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies Programs

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.

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.

Leslie McCartney, M.A.

Leslie McCartney, M.A.

Professor of Library Science, Curator of Oral History

Courses taught:
  • ANTH F470 / ANTH F670 / ACNS F470 / ACNS F670 - Oral Sources: Issues in Documentation
Research specialties and interests: 
Oral History, Gwich'in Elders (Northwest Territories Canada) life stories

 

Chanda Meek, Ph.D.

Chanda Meek, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science

GRUE 602A

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     

Jennifer Schell, Ph.D.

Jennifer Schell, Ph.D.

Professor of English

GRUE 874

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. 

 Walter Skya, Ph.D.

Walter Skya, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of History

GRUE 604C

Courses taught:

  • HIST F100X - Modern World History
  • HIST F122X - East Asian Civilization
  • HIST F330 - Modern China
  • HIST F331 - Modern Japan
  • HIST F333 - Foundations of Japanese History

Research specialties and interests:

Modern Japanese Intellectual History, Political Economy of Modern East Asia, East Asian Nationalisms   

Jeremy Speight, Ph.D.

Jeremy Speight, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Political Science

GRUE 604A

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:

Comparative politics, resource governance, political violence, research methods.
 

Yue Sun

Yue Sun

Assistant Professor of Upper Strings

FINE ARTS 209

Courses Taught:

  • MUS F223X / ACNS F223X - Alaska Native Music

Sveta Yamin-Pasternak

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
Areas of Interest:

Food and culture, ethnomycology, anthropology of art, Circumpolar North, post-Soviet studies

Professor Emeriti

Mary F. Ehrlander, Ph.D.

Professor Emerita

Eric Heyne, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Judith S. Kleinfeld, Ph.D.

Professor Emerita

David Koester, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Gerald (Jerry) McBeath, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

William Schneider, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

In Memoriam

 
Terrence Cole
Remembering Terrence Cole

Photo by Artem Zhdanov