PhD on the Legal Aspects of Indigenous Subsistence Harvesting in the Arctic (1.0 FTE)

Job description

We are seeking self-motivated applicants for a four-year, fully-funded PhD position focusing on the Western and traditional legal systems regulating the subsistence harvesting of Northern animals (e.g., seals, walruses, whales, caribou, fish, birds and others) by Arctic Indigenous peoples, with a focus on Inuit of Nunavut, Inuit Nunangat (the traditional Inuit territories of what is now Canada). For many Inuit, hunting is not only a cornerstone of their cultural identity, but a vital stopgap to household food insecurity. Prior to the implementation of hunting regulations by non-Inuit policymakers and regulators – almost all of which are informed by Western-scientific determinations of species abundance and/or environmental health – most Arctic Indigenous hunters maintained food sovereignty and sustainability through dynamic customary systems based on whole-ecosystem perspectives and myriad cosmological considerations relating to human/nonhu...