Evelyn Widmaier
BS Chemistry; minor, Earth Sciences ‘23
Research Project with Pratt Lab
I spent the summer participating in a research internship with Professor Kerri Pratt’s lab in the University of Michigan Chemistry Department. During my internship, I used ozone and meteorology data from the Arctic sites of Oliktok Point, AK and Utqiaġvik, AK to study atmospheric ozone depletion events in the Alaskan Arctic, and presented my findings at the Undergraduate Research and Networking at the University of Michigan (URAN|UM) Poster Session. Throughout my internship, I gained valuable new skills, worked directly with researchers, and applied knowledge learned in the classroom to answer research questions.
I studied atmospheric ozone depletion events, which are instances when atmospheric ozone levels rapidly drop to near-zero. I obtained ozone and meteorology data from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and I learned how to use software to read and analyze these data. I analyzed data from Oliktok Point, AK and Utqiaġvik, AK from 2017-2020 during the months of February through May, which is the time period in which ozone depletion events are known to occur in the Arctic.
I would like to thank the Program in International and Comparative Studies and the Arctic Internship Fellowship benefactors for their generous support of my summer research internship. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with the Pratt group this summer, and I plan to continue working with them in the fall. This experience was extremely informative and engaging, and I know I will use the skills I learned as I continue to pursue my academic and career goals.
Raj Gautam
BS Earth and Environmental Science ‘22
University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic and Northern Studies Program
Research Internship with Dr. Phil Wight on “History of U.S. Arctic Policy, 1867-1984”
The 2021 PICS Arctic Internship Fellowship expanded my understanding of Arctic issues immensely and has given me a new set of skills that have already helped me advance my education and professional goals. Throughout my internship, my mentor Dr. Wight had a very hands off approach that allowed me to take responsibility for the research I was tasked with. The ability to work independently while remaining consistent and reliable is something that can be leveraged in any work environment and is incredibly useful as a student. I sincerely believe that my experience with this internship fellowship was one of the deciding factors that gave me my current job as a biological science technician for the USGS. In the fall, I plan to start applying for graduate school and the personal and professional relationships that I have been able to cultivate as a result of this internship will be helpful in that process and directly applicable to the type of work I would be doing in graduate school.
My research project specifically aimed to understand when and why the US federal government created a solidified and focused Arctic policy. Initially Dr. Wight and I theorized that the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay in the 1960s was when a focused Arctic policy was birthed. However, it is clear that in the years that followed that discovery, the federal government’s fascination with Alaska was limited to Alaska’s usefulness as a strategic oil reserve and oil producing region. What I loved most about my time with Dr. Wight was his choice of time periods, topics, and issues that would be the most important to research for this project.
I want to take the time to sincerely thank the donors of the PICS Arctic Internship Fellowship. Without the generous support of their grants, I know that many scholars like me would not have been able to take part in this wonderful research program. Especially with COVID-19 placing an unusually hard burden on students, the generosity of the donors cannot be understated. I used the money given to me in the grant to help pay for household bills, rent, and materials relevant to the project. Without the support of the grant, I would not have been able to take on this internship as it did require a lot of my time. Similarly, I also want to thank the Program in International and Comparative Studies and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic and Northern Studies Program. Without the support of these institutions I would not have had this amazing opportunity.
James Hill
BA Philosophy, Politics, and Economy ‘22
University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic and Northern Studies Program
Research Internship with Dr. Amy Lovecraft on “From an economics perspective, what would a just transition of the hydrocarbon economy in the state of Alaska look like?”
Firstly, I’d like to thank the Program in International and Comparative Studies (PICS), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Arctic and Northern Studies Program, and the Arctic Internship Fellowship benefactors for giving me the opportunity to take part in this unique remote internship over the summer. It was an experience that expanded my understanding of academic research, the history of Alaska and its residents, and current events in the Arctic regions of the United States and the rest of the world. I enjoyed working with and want to thank Dr. Amy Lovecraft for the time I was able to spend virtually with her. It was remarkable to learn from her extensive knowledge on the political, social, and economic aspects of transitioning away from a hydrocarbon economy and what that would look like in the state of Alaska.
The internship itself consisted of two weekly meetings – one at the beginning and one at the end of the week – over the duration of two months. The first meeting of the week, Dr. Lovecraft and research assistant Nicholas Parlato provided insight on the upcoming topic that was to be addressed by the interns in the form of reports with at least ten cited academic sources. Intern reports were due by the Friday meeting, and the interns provided explanations of what they found during their research throughout the week. The weekly reports were guided by an overall research syllabus that provided interns with research questions, some background sources, and critical thinking questions to put whatever that week’s topic was into perspective.
The end goal of the fellowship was to come away with about a ten-page paper compiling what we had learned from our weekly reports and lectures. It included an extensive list of the sources we had found throughout the summer in the form of a bibliography. This paper would then be the starting point of an eventual publication after editing and additions provided by Dr. Lovecraft and Nicholas. This publication, slated for some time in the fall, would include my name as part of the research effort. Having the opportunity to be included in a scholarly research article for the first time is exciting and a very rewarding way to cap off this internship.
Learning about Alaska in depth was an interesting experience and I’m eager to visit one day to visually see everything I read about in the scholarly literature, news articles, and blogs throughout the summer. We mostly studied the North Slope Borough, but also touched upon the major cities of Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks (where Dr. Lovecraft was located). Given my focus area of economics, it would have been very beneficial to see first-hand the leading industries of oil, tourism, fishing, and timber. I hope that what I’ve learned from this internship – whether that be the research skills I gained or the knowledge about Alaska’s history, present, and future – can be translated into my continuing education and eventually my career.
Nicole Horne
BA Philosophy, Politics, and Economy; minor Entrepreneurship ‘22
University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic and Northern Studies Program
Research Internship with Dr. Brandon Boylan on “Reconceptualizing Security in Alaska’s Arctic and Understanding Opportunities and Challenges for Nome’s Expanded Port Project”
The PICS Arctic Internship Fellowship award gave me a chance to do research in a field that I otherwise may not have been able to expose myself to. As a University of Michigan student from New Jersey, I haven’t had much interaction with arctic studies, and it was a great experience to be able to have the time to learn more about it, especially in a hands-on manner. My experience this summer interning as a research assistant for Professor Brandon Boylan in particular was very rewarding as I found the projects he was working on to be very intriguing. I worked on two different projects with him and this fall I am going to help him write an article exploring one of the projects.
The first project Professor Boylan was working on was studying the separatist movement in Greenland. Greenland is still controlled by the Kingdom of Denmark but there is a growing separatist movement happening. The movement is very new, it is happening in current time and is still rather small, so there is not yet much research or public data available on it. My job was to create an annotated bibliography that included any articles or books mentioning the separatist movement in Greenland or Denmark’s response to the movement. A few weeks later Professor Boylan moved the Greenland Separatist movement in a more specific direction and had me make a different annotated bibliography focusing on articles about U.S.-Greenland and U.S.-Denmark relations as well as Chinese trade and investment in Greenland. From this information Professor Boylan decided that he wants to write an article about the Greenland separatist movement focusing on how foreign countries' interaction with Greenland influence the separatist movement, which I am helping him with in the fall and winter.
The second project that I helped Professor Boylan with is his project studying European Separatist movements. This is an ongoing project for him as he has studied this before and has a prior article published co-authored with Ekaterina Turkina. Professor Boylan and Turkina are planning to write a second article about the topic so I put together an annotated bibliography of articles that would be relevant to the new article. This annotated bibliography included any articles or books mentioning separatist movements throughout Europe, such as Catalonia.
I would like to thank the Program in International and Comparative Studies (PICS), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Arctic and Northern Studies Program, and the Arctic Internship Fellowship benefactors for making this experience possible for me this summer. Without all of this support I would not have been able to spend my summer doing this research and would have never discovered that studying separatist movements is something that fascinates me.
Natalie Lyijynen
BS Environment; BS Biology, Health, and Society ‘23
University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic and Northern Studies Program
Research Internship with Dr. Amy Lovecraft on “From a social-environmental perspective, what would a just transition of the hydrocarbon economy in the state of Alaska look like?”
This summer I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Amy Lauren Lovecraft, research assistant Nicholas Parlato, and fellow U-M student James Hill. Together, we set out to produce a report answering the question: “from a social-environmental perspective, what would a just transition of the hydrocarbon economy in the state of Alaska look like?” James and I researched various topics under this question, him focusing on the economic considerations of a potential transition and I on the politics and people involved. In the end, with the mentorship and help from both Dr. Lovecraft and Nicholas Parlato, we delivered a manuscript with anticipated publication by the Center for Arctic Policy Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in September or October 2021. I am very grateful for the opportunity and learned much more about extractive economies, just transitions, and the structure of Alaska in general. I’d like to thank the Program in International and Comparative Studies (PICS), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Arctic and Northern Studies Program, and the Arctic Internship Fellowship benefactors for supporting my experience.
Week by week we focused on various sub-questions to further delve into the broad research question. This included researching what transitional studies exist in the social-environmental field of work, what the Arctic is, why Alaska needs a transition, what winners and losers are created if a transition were to take place, and finally what steps Alaska could take to transition. In the beginning of each week, Dr. Lovecraft met with James and I to give a brief lecture and answer any questions that we had. We also met with Nicholas during one week to discuss Russia’s position in the Arctic and the global implications of Alaska transitioning away from a hydrocarbon based economy. For each sub-topic, I wrote a report answering the question with pertinent scholarship. We then met virtually to discuss our work and critically reflect on the direction in which the report was going.
The final manuscript that James and I produced contained four main sections: the nature of the Alaska economy, climate change, transitions, and future Alaska scenarios for 2050. The report is meant to be an honest assessment of a possible transition, looking at the twin forces of economic instability and rapid climate change.
Overall, it was a privilege to work with Dr. Lovecraft, Nicholas Parlato, and James Hill. I learned a lot more about Alaska as an oil state and just transitions. I also gained great experience in researching broad questions, writing academic reports, collaborating with others, presenting and critically reflecting on my research. I enjoyed looking at the issues from a policy perspective and specifically looking at the natural resource laws behind extractive economies. It has encouraged me to take more policy courses at the University of Michigan and I have decided to specialize in natural resource policy as part of my Program in the Environment major. I again would like to thank the Program in International and Comparative Studies (PICS), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Arctic and Northern Studies Program, and the Arctic Internship Fellowship benefactors for supporting my experience.
