AIVAN is an informal platform that unites Indigenous artists throughout the Arctic and beyond to share Indigenous wisdom through creative arts. Our virtual circle is held on a weekly basis to exchange knowledge, traditional crafts techniques, and facilitate discussions on the place of Indigenous arts in the 21st century.
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Our Team
Dr. Andrey Petrov
Associate Professor of Geography, ARCTICenter Director and Academic Director of GeoTREE Center at the University of Northern Iowa. Dr. Petrov is an economic and social geographer who specializes in Arctic economy, regional development and post-Soviet society, with an emphasis on the social geography of Indigenous populations. His current research concerns sustainable development, spatial organization, and restructuring of peripheral economies, as well as dynamics of social-ecological systems. Dr. Petrov leads the Research Coordination Networks in Arctic Sustainability (Arctic-FROST) and Arctic Coastal Resilience (Arctic-COAST). He has published on issues pertaining to socio-economic crisis, development, and demographic dynamics of Arctic populations. Dr. Petrov leads the COVITA project.
Tatiana Degai
Tatiana Degai is an Itelmen scholar from the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Pacific coast of Russia. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in the American Indian Studies program minoring in Linguistics. Tatiana’s Ph.D. research was focused on language revitalization possibilities in the Russian context focusing on her native Itelmen language. She received her MA at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks at the Department of Anthropology with the research on the concept of sacred places in Kamchatka. Currently, Tatiana is a Post-doc at the ARCTICenter, Department of Geography, University of Northern Iowa. Tatiana’s research interests are concentrating on Indigenous knowledge systems, Indigenous visions on sustainability and well-being. These include Indigenous knowledge and biocultural diversity, cultural landscapes and technology, language revitalization and technology, and Indigenous education.
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