The Alaska Anthropological Association will hold its annual meeting in Fairbanks March 14-17, 2007. The event will include two sessions titled "International Collaboration for International Polar Year."

Organizers: Peter P. Schweitzer and Amy L. Lovecraft (both of UAF)
The 2007 meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association coincides with the official start date of the Fourth International Polar Year (IPY) in March 2007. Unlike its predecessors, IPY 2007–08 is characterized by a strong involvement of social scientists and northern stakeholder groups. Research focusing on people is being acknowledged as one of the key areas of the current IPY, together with the dramatic changes northern communities are facing in their social and natural environments.
A key aspect of IPY is international cooperation. While IPY certainly has fostered an increase in international collaboration, it did not invent the concept of research across national and disciplinary boundaries. This session brings together a variety of projects dedicated to the principle of international collaboration, no matter whether they are official IPY projects or not. While the projects to be presented also vary in their disciplinary home bases, they all address the “human dimensions” of northern research, that is, they are potentially relevant for anthropologists.

For more information, visit the Alaska Anthropological Association web page.