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 The IAS sponsors numerous lectures, films and
events throughout the year intended to promote the international
understanding of issues facing the polar regions.
Upcoming Events
November- April 2008 Baker Library Exhibit
"Polar Connections: Dartmouth and the Earth's
Cold Regions"
Dartmouth has a long and distinguished tradition of polar exploration and
research. These “Polar Connections” extend from the earliest days of the
College and are built upon generations of faculty and student efforts to unlock
the mysteries of the cold regions. This exhibit traces the history and legacy
of Dartmouth’s role in Northern and Polar Studies by highlighting the
accomplishments of students and faculty in the Arctic and Antarctic.
The Northern Studies Seminar (NSS)
This interdisciplinary seminar (part of the University Seminar
Series) meets twice per term to discuss current research or issues in
polar related fields, fostering communication across academic lines. Past NSS
lectures have included topics ranging from the science of Auroras and current
research endeavors in Antarctica to discussions of Sami place names,
contemporary Greenland, and environmental contaminants in the North.
Institute of Arctic Studies IPY Activities Include:
Hood and Rauner Collaborations
The IAS in collaboration with the Hood Museum of Art and the Rauner Special Collections
Library (both Dartmouth College) explored perspectives on human/environment
relationships in two associated exhibits in 2007. The Hood exhibit, "Thin Ice: Traditions
within a Changing Environment" (January-March 2007) expanded upon the
Smithsonian Arctic Studies exhibit "Friend Acting Strangely: Arctic Climate
Change" (a SEARCH project) by exploring the observations and perceptions of a
changing climate by Arctic peoples and its influence on movement, hunting, and
community life. The exhibition included perspectives on our changing views of
the Arctic and Antarctic as drawn from photography and art. A second exhibit
(May-July 2007) at the Rauner Special Collections Library acknowledged the
100th anniversary of Stefansson's first expedition and examined
approaches that explorers took to travel and survive in the Arctic. Both
exhibits featured artifacts from the Hood Museum and materials from the
Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration in Rauner Library.
Dartmouth Northern Conference and
Lectures
The Dartmouth Northern Conference and Lecture Series and associated
research and publication projects were initiated in May 2005. Invited speakers
and workshops will involve a wide range of discussions on IPY topics such as
climate change and the resulting changes in subsistence lifestyles and northern
cultures; sea ice dynamics and impacts on international shipping, commerce and
security; and pollution of polar environments and contamination of the marine
food chain. The Dartmouth Northern Conferences seek to articulate a research
agenda that will inform policies that recognize the international importance of
the Polar Regions to global well-being while, at the same time, fostering local
concerns.
Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) March
14-20, 2007
Dickey's Institute of Arctic Studies along with the Cold Regions
Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) hosted ASSW in March, 2007. The
purpose of the ASSW is to provide opportunities for coordination,
collaboration, and cooperation in all areas of polar science, and to combine
science and management meetings. For more information on the ASSW,
view http://www.assw2007.org
"Visions of the Poles": Student Photography
Exhibit, March-June 2007
In 1953, Dartmouth President John Sloan Dickey said that "Dartmouth's
northern activities are... intimately tied to our traditions, location and
unique resources.” The college's strong historic relationship with polar
regions dates back to Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962), an Arctic explorer who
founded Dartmouth’s Northern and Polar Studies program. These polar activities
continue to this day, with students and faculty actively involved in polar
research on topics ranging from Antarctic soil ecology to Inuit community
responses to climate change. Since its inception in 1989, the Institute
of Arctic Studies within the Dickey Center for International Understanding has
provided support for many Dartmouth students to travel to polar regions for
undergraduate and graduate research. These students have returned with a
greater understanding of various aspects of polar issues, and many have also
been profoundly impacted by the serenity and beauty of the Arctic and
Antarctic. This exhibit attempts to share the beauty of these fragile and
rapidly changing landscapes through pictures from research, work, and travel in
high latitude regions.
Exhibit sponsored by the Institute of Arctic Studies and curated by Jeffrey
Bate, ‘07. Photos were contributed by: D. Bradley Bate ‘04 and GR, Wiley
Bogren ’07, Margi Dashevsky ‘10, Allie Hunter ’07, Erik Lambert MALS ‘06, Parke
MacDowell ’07, Lindsay Mann ‘07 and Esther Perman
’07
"Navigating the Northwest Passage: Just
Missing the Ice", May 25-July 31, 2007
The 19th century's quest for an Arctic Northwest Passage set the stage
for men challenging the icy North Seas. Today, this epic still gives us
insights into relationships of society to nature in a world that we are rapidly
changing as the global temperatures are rising. Ice barriers are retreating and
the Northwest Passage will be open to commercial shipping and resource
exploitation. Drawing on the rich Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration,
this exhibition maps the quest for the "Arctic Grail."
The exhibition was curated by Tiffany Chang '09 and Nicole Stuckenberger and
on display in the Class of 1965 Galleries in Rauner Library.
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