Ilisimatusarfik student Tukumminnguaq Nykjær Olsen participated in this year's Arctic Circle 2017 - and here she won a competition organized by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
In the competition, 12 other skilled students from the Arctic participated, and they all had to present their own unique project idea about how to improve the Arctic.
Tukumminnguaq was up against a strong field of talented students with very good project ideas .. but Tukumminnguaq won a first prize with her project idea titled "Innovation is about inclusion - let’s make Arctic inclusive" (in Greenlandic: "Nassaassarsiullaqqinneq peqataatitsineruvoq - Issittoq Inunnik peqataatitsiffiuli").
Tukumminnguaq's project idea was about how to be more inclusive in the Arctic - for example:
that today's public school should be able to include original people's own knowledge together with existing Western knowledge
that knowledge of indigenous people should not only be for indigenous people. Non-indigenous people should also have more knowledge - in this way, misunderstandings and stereotypes can be prevented, as well as help to create openness towards other cultures
Congratulations Tukumminnguaq.
Photographer: Ulunnguaq Markussen
Ilisimatusarfik as centre for Arctic research
For a number of years, Ilisimatusarfik has argued that we should be the key and natural focal point for Arctic research - that we should be the center of a so-called research hub in Greenland.
The basic idea for this research hub is that Ilisimatusarfik is the central coordinating body for the many foreign researchers in Greenland.
When Ilisimatusarfik becomes a key player in this regard, it will benefit all of Greenland - because Arctic research (and research in general) plays a major role in developing the Greenlandic society in relation to innovation, business development, knowledge building etc.
It also provides a greater opportunity for anchoring all the Arctic research in the Greenlandic society - so we can all benefit from it.
There are many advantages in establishing a research hub with Ilisimatusarfik as the central coordinating body:
We establish a greater focus on Arctic research to be anchored locally, thereby benefiting the Greenlandic society
We can help improve Greenlandic educational institutions and our many different learning environments
We can achieve an increased number of international researchers in connection with research projects, conferences, seminars etc.
There is a greater opportunity for well-educated Greenlanders to move home again because of an improved professionally strong environment
Therefore, a research hub will not only be the next natural step for Ilisimatusarfik - it will also benefit all of Greenland.
Tusagassiuutit 2018 - mapping the media in Greenland
In Greenland, national media are a key prerequisite for democracy. The media are a crucial information channel and a means of linking the scattered population together. For the same reason, the Greenlandic media are often the subject of debate.
The newly launched research project ''Tusagassiuutit 2018 " will contribute to this debate with knowledge about the media and the media content. The project will do this by gathering and systematically analyzing all news in Greenlandic news media on selected days. This will, for example, illuminate who makes themselves heard and who does not, what makes news and what does not.
This is done by means of a quantitative content analysis of the content in the news media based on the research question: What characterizes the content of the Greenlandic news media in 2018?
Besides this, Tusagassiuutit 2018 will also contain a detailed mapping of the Greenlandic media landscape (what media are present, how big are they, how does their economy look, who owns them etc.).
Data from the project will be collected in a database that can be used for later studies by e.g. future graduate and PhD students, and be part of teaching materials as part of an increased research based journalism education.
The survey will be repeated every two years, in order to demonstrate how the Greenlandic media structure and the Greenlandic media content develop. The results of the study is to be published in a reader-friendly report. The first report will be published in the fall of 2018.
Read more about the research project on our website.
Journalist education in Greenland 1982 - 2017
As the journalist education in Greenland turns 35, Ilisimatusarfik publishes a book on the history of the education titled ”Kalaallit Nunaanni tusagassiornermik ilinniartitsineq 1982-2017 - Journalistuddannelsen i Grønland 1982-2017” [The Journalist Education in Greenland 1982-2017].
The book is an interesting retrospective of the establishment of the education and the first years as a vocational education, a review of its development towards university integration and a glimpse of its future characterized as a research based education.
The book contains memories and anecdotes from the first heads, teachers and students - but also contributions regarding the professionalization of the journalist profession and the standards and professional identity of the journalist education today. It is thus both an anniversary book with historical value, but also a forward-looking book that raises questions about the journalist education and quality criteria such as language skills and journalistic skills in 2017.
In the book you can read contributions by Aqqaluk Lynge, Kuupik Kleist, Rie Rasmussen and Sofia Geisler, as well as by previous students, among others Malinánguaq Marcussen Mølgaard, Noah Mølgaard and Heidi Møller-Isaksen. In the preface to the book, head of the department of journalism, Naja Paulsen writes:
”During the (35) years, journalists have provided society with news, revelations, human stories and good tales. Many of these journalists have graduated from the Greenlandic journalist education. The education has been subject to review and discussion over the years, and its existence has been repeatedly questioned. Now, 35 years after the somewhat ideological startup of a modern Greenlandic journalist education, we believe it is time to make status”.
The book is 212 pages with Greenlandic and Danish text, and a summary in English. Images from all graduations in the history of education constitute the bulk of the image material in the book.
The book can be purchased at the reception at Ilisimatusarfik campus Ilimmarfik, in Atuagkat bookstore or via our website.
New Ilisimatusarfik publication
Ilisimatusarfik has just published a new version of our popular series of Greenlandic culture and social research.
The new edition has the title: "Grønlandsk Kultur- og Samfundsforskning 2015 - 2017".
You can buy "Grønlandsk Kultur- og Samfundsforskning 2015 - 2017" at the reception at Ilisimatusarfik campus Ilimmarfik - or on our website.
Nordic Summer University in Latvia
By nursing student Parnuuna Eriksen
This summer, I participated in Nordic Summer University for the second consecutive summer - and it is a great opportunity for students. It was exciting to join this year, because I had chosen International Relations and Human Rights as my study groups.
Nordic Summer University (NSU) is a Nordic network for interdisciplinary research. It is an independent academic institution that organizes symposia that attracts international participants across disciplines in the Nordic and Baltic countries. NSU fundamentally works as a generator of ideas. It seeks to develop scientific and innovative initiatives by building international networks and communities that deal with interdisciplinary research and critical thinking. NSU is a non-hierarchical environment - with artists, bachelor students, graduate students and PhD students, researchers and other professionals participating. The activities of NSU consist of thematic study groups, each meeting regularly in the Nordic and Baltic countries during the summer and winter season over a three-year period.
Latvia
Wednesday morning I took the metro to Kastrup Airport - and at the gate I met Danish NSU participants, whom I knew from last year. When we arrived in Riga (capital of Latvia) we were picked up by bus, where I met other NSU participants and was driven to a small town called Saulkrasti.
When we arrived to Saulkrasti, we got the key to our caravans. Almost all participants lived in caravans, and that was the big topic all week. Some got good caravans, some got less good, and others got so bad caravans that they had to cover them in plastic, so no water would come in. But all 167 participants had fun.
In NSU there are nine study groups and a children's group, where the children of the participants are taken care of. Study groups start at 09.00 and ends at 15.00 - and everything is in English. Every day at 15.30 there is a presentation in the big hall for everyone, then we have dinner and participate in cultural programs. Here we got to see Latvian folk dance and listen to a girls' choir.
In our study group there were various presentations on International Relations and Human Rights. There were, among other things, presentations of religion and ethnicity in Polish primary schools, how to understand human rights, the security of Danish soldiers in relation to war, and relations with other countries.
I was asked several times how I ended up in this group as a nursing student, because they could not really see the connection between nursing and international relations and human rights. They got a brief explanation about the Greenlandic health care system's relationship with Denmark and Iceland, and about patient rights.
The environment in NSU is always good - with very good relationships. Each year, there is a general meeting where you choose which study groups should be introduced next year, and each country has a representative - Greenland is linked with Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Sunday is always a day off - where you have the opportunity to go to another city - where a round trip is arranged. I went to Sigulda, where the Gauja National Park is located - and then we went to Castle. In the evening there was a picnic at the beach.
As a tradition, the last day we play football: jante vs. dante (Humanities vs. Social Sciences), and after that there was a gala dinner with dance, and local musicians played the whole evening.
You meet a lot of people from the Nordic countries and the Baltic countries with different backgrounds in NSU.
It has been a learning experience - and I can only recommend others to join NSU.
YouTube live streaming
We have many public lectures at Ilisimatusarfik .. and in order for even more people to benefit from them, we are also streaming many of them via our YouTube channel.
So far, we have live streamed these public lectures:
With a leg in both camps (Sermitsiaq, week 42, page 36) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
VOX POP among students at Ilisimatusarfik: What do you study, why and what would you like to work with? (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 10) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
Studying on a tropical island (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 20) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
Ilisimatusarfik advertisement (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 25) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
Politician on trial (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 28) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
Behind the high walls (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 32) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
When education is exposed to policy (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 36) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
Ilisimatusarfik advertisement (Sermitsiaq, week 42, educational supplement, page 39) (in Greenlandic and Danish)
Greenland's detachment will threaten Denmark's global influence (Kristeligt Dagblad, page 2, 19/10) (and front cover) (in Danish) (& Ritzaus Bureau)
