Mia Bennett
Mia Bennett is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and School of Modern Languages & Cultures (China Studies Programme) at the University of Hong Kong. Through fieldwork and remote sensing, she researches the politics of infrastructure development in frontier spaces, namely the Arctic and areas included within China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Heather Exner-Pirot
Heather Exner-Pirot is a Research Associate at the Observatoire de la politique et la sécurité de l’Arctique (OPSA) and the managing editor of the Arctic Yearbook. She has held positions at the University of Saskatchewan, the International Centre for Northern Governance and Development and the University of the Arctic. She completed her doctoral degree in political science at the University of Calgary in 2011. She has published extensively in Arctic and northern governance, human security, and Indigenous economic development.
Takeshi Kaji
Takeshi Kaji graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York with a degree in Evolutionary Biology of the Human Species. Since 2014, he has worked at the Arctic Circle, a non-partisan organization based in Reykjavik dedicated to democratic dialogue on the future of the Arctic, where he has served as Director since 2017. Before moving to Iceland, he worked as an analyst at the Research Board, a think tank specializing in large-enterprise information technology strategy. He speaks English, French, Icelandic and spotty Russian.
Timo Koivurova
Timo Koivurova is a research professor and director of the Arctic Centre (University of Lapland) in Finland. He specializes in international law, climate change, maritime policy, the Arctic Council and the legal status of Indigenous Peoples. He is co-editor of the book Arctic Law and Governance: The Role of China and Finland.
Ingrid A. Medby
Ingrid A. Medby is a Senior Lecturer in Political Geography at Oxford Brookes University (UK). She completed a PhD at Durham University in the UK in 2017, and prior to this, worked for the North Norway European Office in Brussels, Belgium. Her research centres on Arctic state politics and identity-narratives, with a particular focus on Norway, Iceland, and Canada. She is originally from North Norway, and while she is now based in the UK, travels back to the Arctic as often as she gets the chance.
Irene Quaile
Scots-born journalist Irene Quaile works as Correspondent for Environment and Climate Change with Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. She has also worked for German national radio, Radio Netherlands, the BBC and ABC Radio National, Australia. Irene has received several international radio prizes , including a New York International Radio Festivals gold medal and a United Nations gold award for outstanding radio. She has travelled widely to countries including Mongolia, Laos and Tanzania, working on development and environment-related issues. Since 2007 she has been specialising on the Arctic and made trips to the Arctic regions of Scandinavia, Alaska and Greenland, making radio and online features on climate change and its impact on ecosystems and people. The Ice Blog was created during a trip to the Alaskan Arctic in 2008.