I was delighted to discover yesterday that there is an Arctic University of Norway (UiT), with 11 study sites / campuses across northern Norway and administrative offices in Tromsø. As someone whose friendship network embraces the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (plus my collaborator Jerry Sadock, who is a scholar of, among other things, Greenlandic Eskimo), I’m pleased to see teaching and research flourishing in the far north.
Now consider this map of the continental Scandinavian countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland) and nearby lands — and marvel at just how far north Tromsø (marked on the map) is:
I have friends, students, and colleagues who have grown up in, studied in, or taught in most of the Scandinavian cities named on this map, but the farthest north of these cities is Oulu in Finland (Don Steiny loved his time there), which is way south of Tromsø (and Murmansk in Russia); meanwhile, on the Linguistic Typology mailing list, Dave Sayers often writes about the pleasures of his home university, Jyväskylä, in Finland, which is away from the madding crowds, but far south even of Oulu, in the Finnish central lake district, north of Tampere on this map
The University of the Arctic. A collaborative network (to which UiT belongs). From Wikipedia:
The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region.
UArctic was launched on June 12, 2001
… There are more than 150 members in the University of the Arctic. There are 45 members from Canada, 10 from Denmark, 1 from the Faroe Islands, 18 from Finland, 3 from Greenland, 10 from Iceland, 19 from Norway, 55 from Russia, 7 from Sweden, 26 from the United States and 60 from non-Arctic countries
Iceland is not above the Arctic Circle, but it’s Arctic Circle-adjacent, lying only a little bit south of the circle, so it’s in the Arctic region (see the UArctic definition above).
September 21, 2024 at 10:59 am |
I love Tromsø – I’ve stayed there twice in the summer, once in the full 24-hour midnight sun season. Went walking over the island at all hours, quite literally; slept when I pleased, ate when I pleased (I was staying alone in a cheerful rooming house with a shared kitchen), worked when I pleased (I was preparing to give a paper in Oslo). Had dinner with linguistics colleagues at the University of North Norway – just like an academic dinner anywhere except for the sun tracing a big 24-hour oval in the sky. Have plans to take a Northern Lights winter cruise, which will have a Tromsø stop as it heads north along the Norwegian coast, so if that works out I’ll get my first look at Tromsø in the snow.
September 21, 2024 at 11:35 am |
Envy for time in the Arctic summer, which has always sounded wonderful to me. (My lungs can’t handle cold air, so winter is just out. I know, I know, I just didn’t get the relevant Swiss genes.)