The “Arctic Week” is a one-week international conference that provides transdisciplinary approaches to climate and environmental changes in the Arctic. It aims to provide an overview of the different challenges of the Arctic regions, as understood by Arctic peoples and by researchers. In a desire to pursue the interdisciplinary approach to environmental and climate changes initiated at the first edition, combining human and social sciences, environmental sciences, as well as indigenous peoples and international students.
The idea of the Arctic Week is to create synergies between social and environmental scientists and between scientists and Arctic indigenous peoples while also engaging students and the youth in these projects. It is also very important to hold public events and photograph exhibitions in order to raise public awareness in France about Arctic climate change and biodiversity issues.
The participation of Arctic indigenous peoples from Siberia, Northern Europe, Greenland, Alaska and Canada is crucial for the conference because they are frontline witnesses of the profound effects that global and climate changes have on the environment and they want their knowledge and observations to be heard. Several scientific projects in the Arctic have proven the valuable input of indigenous knowledge systems, and the latter should be fully involved in and recognised by the scientific community.
The Call for Proposals is open until the 15th September of 2019. Human and Social Sciences and Environmental Sciences, as well as Indigenous and Transdisciplinarity approaches are welcome.