Kaitlin Young, photo supplied
Where is Greenland? Is it really green? Who lives in Greenland? Who is Greenlandic? Alumna Kaitlin Young seeks to answer these questions with two lectures at UWinnipeg. Both lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in Room 5L24, Lockhart Hall.
Her first lecture, Indigenous Cartographies of Arctic Places and Spaces will be Thursday, March 1, from 1:00-2:30 pm.
Her second lecture, Nuuk “York” City: The colonial past, anticipated futures, and emerging urban lifestyle of the Kalaallit will be Friday, March 2, from 12:30-1:20 pm.
“I will explore how I envision critical cartography as serving two imperative functions for Greenlandic Inuit,” Young said. “First, it can be used as a means to challenge the conventional academic understanding of traditional mapping. Additionally, it will provide the local people with a culturally appropriate tool for communication while allowing them to redistribute the power inherent in placing geographic knowledge on paper. While proponents of the radicalization of the cartographic field from Harley to Brody have emphasized the deconstruction and deliberative policies of censorship involved in mapping, I will investigate the ways in which I believe the democratization of cartography can be mobilized in Greenland.”
The wealth of resources under the Arctic subsoil can lead to great economic and political aspirations. In Greenland, extractive industries are a cornerstone of the Government’s policy for economic development and eventual independence from Denmark. Paradoxically, the motivation for political independence could lead to the potential of colonial modes of extraction and an exclusion of local populations.
In her presentation, Young will identify and engage with critical cartography as a tool for Greenlanders to illustrate artistic expression with distinct spatial representation.
Young is in the fourth year of her PhD in the Anthropology Department at the University of Alberta. She has been conducting ethnographic research in Greenland since 2013 as a researcher in the Climate and Society Programme at the Greenlandic Institute of Natural Resources.
Her graduate work has focused on a review of the regulatory processes in Greenland surrounding the social impacts of potential mining projects, along with the role of Non-Governmental Organizations as counter-hegemonic groups. She continues her work in Greenland and is now focusing on the visual semantics of ownership through mapping, tourism and media in the country.
Outside of her graduate work, Young can be found volunteering at numerous community outreach programs and has recently started a participatory mapping workshop with a drop-in centre that services marginalized populations in Edmonton, AB. When she is not conducting research or writing, you can find her on a spin bike or at home poorly attempting a new recipe in her kitchen. Young graduated from UWinnipeg in 2012 with a four-year Bachelor of Arts.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the departments of geography, anthropology and environmental studies and sciences.
