Arctic Frontiers 2023 Conference

Torjer Andreas Olsen
Professor in indigenous studies, UiT – University of the Arctic, Tromsø. Olsen teaches methodology and theoretical perspectives on the Master's degree program in indigenous studies. Research interests: Sami and indigenous issues in school and education; gender, power, and positions in indigenous studies, the history of religions in Sápmi and Northern Norway.

Crystal Fraser
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts - History, Classics, & Religion Dept. University of Alberta, Canada. Fraser is Gwichyà Gwich'in and originally from Inuvik and Dachan Choo Gę̀hnjik, Northwest Territories. She also has connections to English and Scottish heritage. Crystal's PhD research focused on the history of student experiences at Indian Residential Schools in the Inuvik Region between 1959 and 1996. Her work makes a strong contribution to how scholars engage with Indigenous research methodologies and theoretical concepts, our understanding of Indigenous histories during the second half of the twentieth century, and how northern Canada was unique in relation to the rest of the settler nation. Crystal's doctoral dissertation was awarded the 2020 John Bullen Prize by the Canadian Historical Association for her thesis, titled T’aih k’ìighe’ tth’aih zhit dìidìch’ùh or By Strength We Are Still Here.

Mikkel Berg-Norlie
Senior researcher at the NIBR Institute of Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). Berg-Nordlie wrote his PhD in history at UiT – University of the Arctic, on the subject of Russian Sámi politics. Berg-Nordlie mainly writes about Indigenous politics and other ethnic minority-related politics. Among his more recent academic works are An Urban Future for Sápmi? Indigenous Urbanization in the Nordic states and Russia (Berghahn 2022) and Sámi in the Heart: Kinship, Culture, and Community as Foundations for Indigenous Sámi Identity in Norway (Ethnopolitics 2021).

Eva Marie Fjellheim
PhD Student, The Saami Council. Fjellheim holds a Master in Development Studies and Human Geography, and currently pursues a PhD in Indigenous Studies. She has a broad background from working with Indigenous peoples’ issues in Sápmi and Latin-America, focusing on Indigenous peoples’ land rights and conflicts caused by extractive industries. Her PhD research concerns green colonialism and resistance to the wind energy industry on Saami reindeer herding lands.