Dr. Marya Rozanova-Smith, Ph.D., is a Research Professor at The George Washington University. In addition to her work in academia, she participated in a wide range of social projects. She was the founder and chairperson of the Center for Civil, Social, Scientific, and Cultural Initiatives “STRATEGIA” and served as a Galina Starovoitova Fellow for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at the Kennan Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Dr. Rozanova-Smith has been teaching the Arctic Affairs course at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs since 2018.

​

Her current research interests include Arctic governance, urban sustainability, Indigenous urbanization, gender empowerment, and the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arctic. Dr. Rozanova-Smith is a Principal Investigator of the project “Understanding the Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in the Arctic (COVID-GEA)” supported by NSF.

 

Dr. Andrey N. Petrov is 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. 

​​

​

 

 

Varvara Korkina Williams, a Kumandin Indigenous scholar, working with Indigenous entrepreneurship, cultural economy and sustainable development. She is a project coordinator at the ARCTICenter, University of Northern Iowa. Varvara is an Indigenous youth and human rights activist with interests in dynamics of Indigenous cultures and community well-being, and cultural economy. 

 

Varvara's research has looked at cultural economy through a solution-oriented approach, especially for women. Her research results were successfully implemented by a young female entrepreneur, in the Altai republic. This was a local business who hired victims of domestic violence, older women from remote villages or vulnerable young girls without higher education, to produce locally sourced products.

​

​