Planning Grant: Moving Forward Together - Transforming Arctic Geosciences for Alaska Native Sovereignty and Science

With this 2.5 year planning grant, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) will lay the foundation for graduate geoscience education that is attractive to and supportive of Alaska Native, first-generation, and other students from underrepresented communities. Utilizing Indigenous methodologies and principles of knowledge co-production, the project leaders prioritize building partnerships across and beyond campus with Indigenous communities and leadership which requires a focus on process, dialogue, relationships, and respect. This transformative approach will converge the presently siloed disciplines of geosciences, social sciences, and Indigenous studies present at UAF and in the broader science community. The primary project partners are the UAF Alaska Native Success Initiative, the UAF Department of Equity and Compliance, and the First Alaskans Institute. In addition, the program will bring together currently disparate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion groups across the UAF campus, existing student groups such as Geoscientists of Color (GeoColor), the UAF faculty accelerator, and other related projects at UAF such as the NSF Tamamta Project and the Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub. This effort will include activities that will lay the foundation for a CTGC implementation proposal that is centered around convergence of entities, disciplines, and initiatives across and beyond the UAF campus, institutionalizing a teaching, learning, and research environment that is inclusive of multiple ways of knowing, and contextualizing the transformation of geosciences at UAF within diverse and specific educational opportunities, including experiential and cross-cultural learning. Activities will include a program of workshops, training, dialogues, and establishing the basis and framework for a mentoring program and a culture camp.

Momentum has been building in the Geosciences at UAF toward institutional transformation and a new, transdisciplinary graduate degree program in Earth System Science is currently under institutional review. One important aspect of this program is the solid integration of sustainability science and the human dimension through a Sustainability Concentration. The proposed activities will be directly integrated into this transdisciplinary Sustainability Concentration of the newly designed Earth System Science program at UAF. The thematic focus is rapid change in the Arctic including climate change, impacts, and adaptation as well as hazard mitigation. Alaska Native peoples are especially vulnerable to climate extremes, with values and identity rooted in deep relationality between humanity and the natural world and compounding impacts arising from historical legacies of colonization and splintered governance that complicate response efforts. The climate is warming in northern latitudes at over twice the rate of other parts of the globe. Rural and Alaska Native communities throughout the state, many of which are accessible only by air or water, are among the most vulnerable, facing threats to key areas of concern such as salmon, large mammals, human health, and community infrastructure from extreme events such as flooding, high winds, erosion, increased rainfall, increased wildfire, and more extreme weather. Thus, there is an urgent need for Indigenous expertise in addressing these issues in Alaska and the Arctic.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.