The Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland and collaborators invite abstract submissions for an Inter-Polar Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 6-9 September 2023.
The Arctic and the Third Pole-Himalayan region both contain important elements of the cryosphere, the near-permanent presence of water in a frozen state. However, as temperatures in both regions are currently increasing rapidly, these areas are rapidly thawing, and several elements of the cryosphere are at the tipping points. Changes in the cryosphere will have major impacts on local communities and ecosystems, and also lead to larger-scale changes: the melting of the Himalayan glaciers and changes in the snowpack will have significant regional effects related to the provision of water to a quarter of humanity, and the melting of cryosphere in the Arctic will contribute significantly to global sea level rise, affecting the 10% of humanity living within 10 m above of sea level, as well as global trade as docks and other infrastructure at sea level are affected.
The interlinked aspect of cryosphere thaw and climate change is crucial in promoting polar science. However, the Arctic and Third Pole are almost always considered separately, demonstrating very little knowledge about the commonalities and links between both regions, especially concerning (geo-) political, socio-cultural, environmental and legal dynamics of effects of and responses to these changes.
To remedy this deficiency, the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM) of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, in collaboration with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the UArctic Chair in Arctic Legal Research and Education, and the UArctic Law Thematic Network, is organising an Inter-Polar Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 6-9 September 2023. This Conference is intended to be a starting point for a durable network that will bring together experts from both regions and explore Arctic and Third Pole topics from an inter-polar perspective. We hope that this shift can not only help understand the climate change-driven effects on the two Poles but also help prepare scholars and stakeholders in both regions to develop an in-depth understanding of sustainability in a changing climatic and geopolitical landscape. This Conference's focus will be inter- and cross-disciplinary, underlining broad areas of social and legal sciences. But there will also be ample room for scholars to bring knowledge from natural and life science disciplines.
Call for abstracts
We invite abstract submissions, not exceeding 300-word, by scholars from the Arctic and the Third Pole regions that look at the following or closely related topics, either from a focussed, but preferably through a comparative or connecting lens:
- Climate change and environmental governance
- Cryosphere and the governance of the Polar regions
- International law and legal arrangement in a transnational setting
- Institutions and regional and global cooperation
- Geopolitics and security
- Science diplomacy and science communications
- Livelihood, culture and identity
- Indigenous and tribal peoples' studies
- Human Rights and Human Security
- Rights of Nature, and human-nature and human-environment relations
- Climate actions and sustainable development
- Regional and urban developments
- Education, social justice and equality
- Sustainable and responsible tourism
- Food and water security
- Storytelling, artistic representation and media studies
- Local and regional economic development
- Risk and disaster management
Submission of abstracts
Abstract format:
1. Presentation title
2. Author(s)
3. Email address(es)
4. Abstract text
5. Keywords (4-5)
Practicalities:
• Selected presenters to the Conference will receive email notification of the acceptance of the abstracts.
• Upon confirming their participation following the timeline suggested, presenters must arrange their own travel and accommodation in Kathmandu. The conference organizer(s) do not provide any financial and/or practical assistance.
• The Conference does not demand any full version of the paper(s). However, at a post-conference stage, the organizer(s) intend to collect suitable revised papers and findings of the Conference and publish them in an edited volume
• Abstracts should be submitted to this email, following the instructions below: interpolarconference2023@gmail.com
→ In the email's subject box: Author’s last name followed by “Abstract_IPC”. Example: “Anthony_Abstract_IPC”