Blog

We celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Calotte Academy. The Academy was born with a mission of becoming an alternative model for conventional academic conferences in the North Calotte region. Three decades later, it raised up as an exceptional “school of dialogue” among the research community and northern stakeholders, as well as among senior and young researchers in the European Arctic.

It has been a great pleasure and honor for me to participate in the Calotte Academy for several decades and in various roles. I immediately realized that this was something very different and special. Indeed, I did not understand why such a small number of people had a debate on such important issues.

Let me begin with stressing that I have had a privilege to participate in several editions of Calotte Academy, so summarizing my impressions about it is not an easy task. I learned about the Academy accidentally. Freshly enrolled in PhD studies in International Affairs after completing my MSc in Security Studies, I was searching for some geopolitics related articles when it appeared – Calotte Academy announcement.

The Calotte Academy (CA) is on the one hand, an annual traveling symposium in Europe’s Arctic, North Calotte region and an international, independent, though not established, policy-oriented academic forum - with tens of scientific presentations, lively presentations and written reports - in the Arctic.