A FRACTURED NORTH

(A new book series for our ‘troubled times’)

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its twentieth month, has had a chilling impact on our common field of research, publications, museum work, and interactions with Indigenous partners and colleagues in Russia. Joint projects have been postponed or cancelled, fieldwork and visits banned, and many personal connections frozen or imperiled. While happening not for the first time in our historical memory, the cumulative shock is devastating, after three decades of vital and fruitful collaboration.

To help counter these impacts, a team of scholars proposes a new series of volumes under the Foundation for Siberian Cultures (Kulturstiftung Sibirien). We call the series A Fractured North to underscore the artificially sundered situation of our field. For this new series, we invite papers by those who work to support Arctic/Siberian humanistic scholarship, Indigenous cultures, and languages – anthropologists, historians, geographers, Indigenous cultural activists, archaeologists, museum, and language specialists, and colleagues in other disciplines.

The volumes are intended to support our research relationships and maintain the scholarly discourse over Arctic/Siberian themes, past and present, during this challenging time. We view the main reason for such type of publications as follows:

• Create a record of what has been achieved in your respective area(s) during the last years;
• Report how activities have been delayed or stalled (or canceled) and at what cost;
• Assess how vital is international cooperation today, due to the changing nature of our
  common Arctic/Siberian field;
• Consider how the currently diminished or suspended efforts may be reinvigorated or
  restarted when connections resume;
• If you believe the gap in collaboration is going to be long, consider whether/how institutional resources and memory could be preserved for later time.

Erich Kasten (Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany), Igor Krupnik (Washington, DC, USA), and Gail Fondahl (Prince George, Canada) will serve as co-editors for the first issues in this new series. The first volume with the title A Fractured North: Facing dilemmas is in its final stage and will be published in early summer 2024. We invite you to propose a contribution to the next volumes on 2) Collaborative projects in the Russian North in various scientific fields that are at risk or have been halted; and 3) Maintaining or restoring connections among partners. For this you are welcome to send us a proposed title and an abstract (200-300 words), in English, German or Russian. After receipt of your abstract, we will send you the ‘Guidelines for Contributors’.

We also draw your attention to a panel at the upcoming ICASS XI/Arctic Congress 2024, related to our new series: Contending with a ‘Fractured North’: Reflections on the Future of International Social Sciences Collaborations in the Russian North. We hope to see many of you there.

We are looking forward to hearing from you soon! Please feel free to circulate this invitation.

Erich, Igor, and Gail

kasten@kulturstiftung-sibirien.de, igokrupnik@gmail.com, Gail.Fondahl@unbc.ca

A FRACTURED NORTH

(A new book series for our ‘troubled times’)

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its twentieth month, has had a chilling impact on our common field of research, publications, museum work, and interactions with Indigenous partners and colleagues in Russia. Joint projects have been postponed or cancelled, fieldwork and visits banned, and many personal connections frozen or imperiled. While happening not for the first time in our historical memory, the cumulative shock is devastating, after three decades of vital and fruitful collaboration.

To help counter these impacts, a team of scholars proposes a new series of volumes under the Foundation for Siberian Cultures (Kulturstiftung Sibirien). We call the series A Fractured North  to underscore the artificially sundered situation of our field. For this new series, we invite papers by those who work to support Arctic/Siberian humanistic scholarship, Indigenous cultures, and languages – anthropologists, historians, geographers, Indigenous cultural activists, archaeologists, museum, and language specialists, and colleagues in other disciplines.

The volumes are intended to support our research relationships and maintain the scholarly discourse over Arctic/Siberian themes, past and present, during this challenging time. We view the main reason for such type of publications as follows:

• Create a record of what has been achieved in your respective area(s) during the last years;
• Report how activities have been delayed or stalled (or canceled) and at what cost;
• Assess how vital is international cooperation today, due to the changing nature of our
  common Arctic/Siberian field;
• Consider how the currently diminished or suspended efforts may be reinvigorated or
  restarted when connections resume;
• If you believe the gap in collaboration is going to be long, consider whether/how institutional resources and memory could be preserved for later time.

Erich Kasten (Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany), Igor Krupnik (Washington, DC, USA), and Gail Fondahl (Prince George, Canada) will serve as co-editors for the first issues in this new series. The first volume with the title A Fractured North: Facing dilemmas is in its final stage and will be published in early summer 2024. We invite you to propose a contribution to the next volumes on 2) Collaborative projects in the Russian North in various scientific fields that are at risk or have been halted; and 3) Maintaining or restoring connections among partners. For this you are welcome to send us a proposed title and an abstract (200-300 words), in English, German or Russian. After receipt of your abstract, we will send you the ‘Guidelines for Contributors’.

We also draw your attention to a panel at the upcoming ICASS XI/Arctic Congress 2024, related to our new series: Contending with a ‘Fractured North’: Reflections on the Future of International Social Sciences Collaborations in the Russian North. We hope to see many of you there.

We are looking forward to hearing from you soon! Please feel free to circulate this invitation.

Erich, Igor, and Gail

kasten@kulturstiftung-sibirien.de, igokrupnik@gmail.com, Gail.Fondahl@unbc.ca

A FRACTURED NORTH

(A new book series for our ‘troubled times’)

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its twentieth month, has had a chilling impact on our common field of research, publications, museum work, and interactions with Indigenous partners and colleagues in Russia. Joint projects have been postponed or cancelled, fieldwork and visits banned, and many personal connections frozen or imperiled. While happening not for the first time in our historical memory, the cumulative shock is devastating, after three decades of vital and fruitful collaboration.

To help counter these impacts, a team of scholars proposes a new series of volumes under the Foundation for Siberian Cultures (Kulturstiftung Sibirien). We call the series A Fractured North to underscore the artificially sundered situation of our field. For this new series, we invite papers by those who work to support Arctic/Siberian humanistic scholarship, Indigenous cultures, and languages – anthropologists, historians, geographers, Indigenous cultural activists, archaeologists, museum, and language specialists, and colleagues in other disciplines.

The volumes are intended to support our research relationships and maintain the scholarly discourse over Arctic/Siberian themes, past and present, during this challenging time. We view the main reason for such type of publications as follows:

• Create a record of what has been achieved in your respective area(s) during the last years;
• Report how activities have been delayed or stalled (or canceled) and at what cost;
• Assess how vital is international cooperation today, due to the changing nature of our
  common Arctic/Siberian field;
• Consider how the currently diminished or suspended efforts may be reinvigorated or
  restarted when connections resume;
• If you believe the gap in collaboration is going to be long, consider whether/how institutional resources and memory could be preserved for later time.

Erich Kasten (Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany), Igor Krupnik (Washington, DC, USA), and Gail Fondahl (Prince George, Canada) will serve as co-editors for the first issues in this new series. The first volume with the title A Fractured North: Facing dilemmas is in its final stage and will be published in early summer 2024. We invite you to propose a contribution to the next volumes on 2) Collaborative projects in the Russian North in various scientific fields that are at risk or have been halted; and 3) Maintaining or restoring connections among partners. For this you are welcome to send us a proposed title and an abstract (200-300 words), in English, German or Russian. After receipt of your abstract, we will send you the ‘Guidelines for Contributors’.

We also draw your attention to a panel at the upcoming ICASS XI/Arctic Congress 2024, related to our new series: Contending with a ‘Fractured North’: Reflections on the Future of International Social Sciences Collaborations in the Russian North. We hope to see many of you there.

We are looking forward to hearing from you soon! Please feel free to circulate this invitation.

Erich, Igor, and Gail

kasten@kulturstiftung-sibirien.de, igokrupnik@gmail.com, Gail.Fondahl@unbc.ca