Funded by National Science Foundation, Arctic Social Sciences
    PI Timothy Heleniak
    Department of Geography   
    University of Maryland, USA

Using the tools of economic and population geography, the aim of this project will be to document and analyze changes in the spatial distribution of economic activity and settlements patterns across the circumpolar North. The project aims to be comparative, spatial, and temporal. A major component of this will be to examine the events of the past decade and a half in the Russian North against the situation in other northern regions. The breakup of the Soviet Union, transition of the Russian economy, and liberalization of society has had profound consequences for the Russian North. The research under this component of the project will be based on migration statistics, population census results, administrative data, surveys, and fieldwork.

Book Chapters and Articles

“The role of attachment to place in migration decisions of the population of the Russian North”, Polar Geography, paper submitted to special issue of on “Circumpolar Migration” edited by Wayne Edwards (In press).

“Changing Settlement Patterns across the Russian North at the Turn of the Millennium”, Russia’s Northern Regions on the Edge: Communities, Industries and Populations from Murmansk to Magadan edited by Markku Tykkylainen and Vesa Rautio, Kikimora Publications University of Helsinki: Helsinki, Finland, 2008, pp. 25-52. (For information on ordering the books from the Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki go to http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/english/)

“Growth Poles and Ghost Towns in the Russian Far North”, Russia and the North, edited by Elana Wilson Rowe and Helge Blakkisrud, Centre for Russian Studies, Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, Oslo, Norway, University of Ottawa Press (In press).

“Migration and Population Change in the Russian Far North during the 1990s”, Migration in the Circumpolar North: New Concepts and Patterns, edited by Chris Southcott and Lee Huskey, Northern Studies Press, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada (In press)

Presentations

“Migration and Development in Russia’ Northern and Arctic Regions”, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, February 18, 2009.

“West Siberia in the comparative analysis of migration patterns in the Russian North since Perestroika”, Paper presented at the conference “Life, Labour and Socialisation in the Northern Industrial City”, Novyi Urengoi, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, 4-6 December 2008.

“Migration and Relocation in the Russian Arctic”, National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, Arctic Social Sciences Program, Arlington, Virginia, 7 October 2008. 

“Human Dimensions of the International Polar Year”, Fall 2008 Seminar Series, “Human Dimensions of Global Change”, Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 2 October 2008.

“The role of attachment to place in migration decisions of the population of the Russian North”, Paper presented at International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences VI, Nuuk, Greenland, 22-26 August 2008.

“Changing Origins and Destinations of Migrants in the Russian North”, Presented at the International Workshop "Population Dynamics in the Circumpolar North", June 6-9, 2008, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.

“The Northern Regions in Russia’s Post-Soviet Migration”, present at “BOREAS Workshop: Heading North, Heading South: Arctic social-sciences in a global dialogue”, Max Plank Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany, 6-9 March 2008.

“Migration and Regional Development in Russia’s Northern Periphery”, Paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston Massachusetts, 15-19 April 2008.

“Changing Settlement Patterns across the Russian North at the Turn of the Millennium”, presented at “Encountering the Russian North” Conference organized by the Russia in Flux Research Programme of the Academy of Finland, 12 - 13 December 2007, University of Joensuu, Joensuu, Finland.

“Migration and Restructuring in the Russian Far North”, Centre for Russian Studies Annual Conference “Russia and the North”, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), 28 - 29 November 2007, Oslo, Norway.

“Migration and Population Change in Siberia and the Russian Far North during the 1990s”, paper presented at the conference “Migration in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned, Questions Remaining”, 10 – 12 June 2007, University of Roskilde, Denmark.

“Migration To and From Siberia, 1897 to 2002”, Keynote speech presented at the conference “The Ethnohistory and Archaeology of Northern Eurasia: Theory, Methods and Practice”, 19 – 25 May 2007, Irkutsk, Siberia.

“Migration in the Russian Far North during the 1990s”, presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, California, April 18, 2007.