NORSEC Activities: Prior NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Programs 1990-1993, Dissertation Improvement Grants 1996-99

  The National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs has repeatedly recognized CUNY's expertise in northern Anthropology training and education with substantial external support for student training. In 1990, two Hunter undergraduate women were taken to NW Iceland as part of a special "women in the north" Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) supplement to NSF research grants to McGovern ($15k supplement to $100k base grant). Both entered doctoral programs, and one (Dr. Sophia Perdikaris) is now a CUNY Ph.D. and Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College. Dr. Perdikaris also participated in an innovative 3 year REU sites grant ($160k) at the Hunter College Bioarchaeology Laboratory in 1991-93. This program was ranked in the top three REU sites applications in a nation-wide, all-disciplines competition, and subsequently received commendations from the NSF Office of Polar Programs Arctic Social Science program. All of the CUNY REU participants have since joined doctoral programs or entered successful professional careers. The 1999 season of the CUNY field school was generously aided by an $18k REU supplement from Office of Polar Programs (Arctic Social Science Program) that sponsored two undergraduates and one high school science teacher to participate in the work in Iceland. A new three year proposal to NSF (just over $400k) for an expanded REU program based on NORSEC cooperation is now under review .

  In 1996, Jim Woollett (a graduate of U Alberta attracted to CUNY GSUC by participation in Hunter fieldwork in Iceland) was awarded a two year NSF Polar Programs Doctoral Improvement Grant ($24k) to support his work in Labrador. Woollett's archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork has since been recognized by Labrador Inuit communities and his results have proven to have great significance for global change climate research. He is co-authoring a major article for Science with the U New Hampshire ice core teams, and is completing his dissertation as a research fellow at the Bowdoin College Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center.

The origins of the North Atlantic commercial fisheries (now in crisis due to over exploitation of stocks) is a major global change research topic. Dr. Perdikaris's doctoral research centered on the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands in arctic Norway, where the distinctive Norwegian fishing village first began ca. AD 1100. Perdikaris' repeated field seasons (including some winter trips to participate in the December cod fishery) have generated great community interest in further work. Plans are underway for a second CUNY-NABO field school at the scenic (and ancient) fishing center of Langenes in cooperation with Tromso U and the local Øksnes Museum. Funding from PSC-CUNY, NSF, Øksnes Community.