A group of twenty-one researchers represented Trent University at the annual ArcticNet Scientific Meeting (ASM), Canada’s largest annual Arctic research conference, held in Vancouver, BC. Trent graduate students, researchers and faculty members participated in the conference, shedding light on their research through a large number of oral and poster presentations.
Trent upheld its six-year record of award-winning Arctic student research at the ASM, with Agata Durkalec placing second in the graduate student poster award category of human health. Ms. Durkalec is a recent graduate from the M.A. program in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies.
“I'm very pleased,” she said. “The award is very affirming of all the effort that went into this project, and forms a very positive note to end on for my thesis.” Ms. Agata defended her master’s thesis one week prior to the conference. It was entitled “Understanding the role of environment for Indigenous health: A case study of sea ice as a place of health and risk in the Inuit community of Nain, Nunatsiavut”.
Dr. Chris Furgal of Trent’s Indigenous Environmental Studies program had the honour of being among the collaborators recognized with one of the first annual Arctic Inspiration Prizes for “Inuit Qujimajatuqangitan – What Inuit Have Always Known to be True,” a comprehensive book project describing Inuit Culture and traditional knowledge. The book promises to be an extraordinary resource that will contribute to positive change in Inuit communities and beyond.
Kaitlin Breton-Honeyman, a Trent Ph.D. candidate in the Environment and Life Sciences program, encourages other Arctic student researchers to go to the ArcticNet ASM, saying “It’s at conferences such as these where you get to understand the bigger picture of northern research and to figure out where your research fits. It’s pretty special to get to learn from and be part of a dynamic group of people from universities, governments, organizations, northern communities and industry.”
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2013.