“Go then, there are other worlds than these.” The line from The Dark Tower came back to me when I encountered an inspiring quote by Elizabeth Povinelli that also resonates with my research:
“But no world is actual one world. The feeling that one lives in the best condition of the world unveils the intuition that there is always more than one world in the world at any one time“ (Povinelli 2011, original emphasis).
The University of Oulu recently launched its Arctic Summer Programme: a series of two-week courses for international students that explore the Arctic region through lectures, discussions, and practical experiences in Northern Finland.
This week, I taught two lectures on Indigenous notions of sustainability and human–resource relations in the Arctic to a mixed group from two courses: Arctic and Nordic Perspectives on Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. The students ranged from Bachelor’s to advanced Master’s level, with backgrounds from education to engineering and nursing – an inspiring but challenging mix.
I often call myself an interdisciplinary researcher, but how often do I actually think about what that means? Well, not as often as I’d like to! But last week, I had a chance to reflect on this deeply during three vibrant days as the University of Oulu hosted the 47th Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) conference.
Anna Niia Varfolomeeva 