Inupiaq doctoral graduate wants to expand scope of Inuit knowledge June 3rd 11:03 am |
Emily Hofstaedter, Arctic Sounder
Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq stepped onto the greens of Virginia Tech University for the first time in May 2021. But this campus tour was unlike any other Itchuaqiyaq had taken in the past.
Now she is Dr. Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq - an Inupiaq woman from Kotzebue, recent doctoral graduate, and a new professor at the university. I ve spent so much of my time being nurtured or challenged by professors but I never considered that I could be one myself, said Itchuaqiyaq. It was just not within my world of expectation . so walking across campus it just really tripped me out!
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The process of earning a doctorate takes a lot of time and work. And for one Iñupiaq woman hearing the words doctor next to her name was pretty emotional. Her response to passing her dissertation defense went viral this month after hundreds of thousands of people saw her reaction.
Dr. Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq is originally from Kotzebue and just completed her doctoral program in technical writing and rhetoric at Utah State University. (Photo courtesy of Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq) In a video Twitter post, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq recorded herself getting the news that she’d passed her doctoral program at Utah State University.
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One of the National Science Foundation’s flagship initiatives for the past few years is called Navigating the New Arctic. It looks at the effects of a warming climate on Arctic communities. However, some in the field believe NSF isn’t doing enough to involve Indigenous people who live there.
Margaret Anamaq Rudolf is a doctoral candidate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. An Inupiaq woman originally from Fairbanks, her area of study is cross-cultural science education.
“How do we improve working relationships between researchers and Indigenous communities,” Rudolf explained.
Rudolf is also one of the people who authored the letter to the National Science Foundation. While she welcomes the foundation’s initiative, she says it falls short of its potential to include the people who live in the Arctic.