Keynote speakers

Sanna is a Senior Researcher at the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, a Senior Fellow at The Arctic Institute, and a docent (adjunct professor) at the University of Turku. Her research focuses on global environmental politics, international norms of responsibility, and Arctic international relations. Sanna is the author of China and Great Power Responsibility for Climate Change (Routledge 2019) and a co-editor of Chinese Policy and Presence in the Arctic (Brill Publishing 2020).

Currently, she leads three research projects: Rethinking International Relations in an Era of the Planetocene: Case Arctic Ocean Up to 2050 funded by the Research Council of Finland (2023-2027), A Planetary Approach to Global Arctic Politics funded by the University of Lapland’s internal strategy funding (2022-2024), and Climate Responsibility as a Cornerstone of Multilateral Cooperation? funded by the Kone Foundation (2022-2025). More information: sannakopra.com

Richard is Professor of Arctic Studies at the University of Cambridge. He has worked at the Scott Polar Research Institute and Department of Geography at Cambridge since April 2017, and is also Fellow and Director of Studies at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He was previously Associate Professor in Human Geography, and a Tutorial Fellow at Mansfield College, at the University of Oxford (2010-2017).

Richard’s wider research interests encompass historical and cultural geographies, the geopolitics of territory and resources, geographies of science, and the histories of the social and natural sciences. His fieldwork has focused on the Circumpolar Arctic (specifically Nunavut, Greenland and northern Norway), as well as Denmark, Canada, the US and the UK.

Richard is the Principal Investigator in the ERC-funded project Arctic Cultures (2017-2024) and has been working alongside Post Doctoral Researchers and a Project Coordinator at museums, archives, libraries and repositories across Europe and North America, as well as in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.

He is the author of Studying Arctic Fields: Cultures, Practices, and Environmental Sciences, and co-author with Klaus Dodds of Polar Geopolitics? 

Dr. Lassi Heininen is Professor (emeritus) of Arctic Politics, Editor of Arctic Yearbook, Director of Calotte Academy, Leader of UArctic TN on Geopolitics & Security. His research fields include IR, Geopolitics, Security Studies, Environmental Politics, Northern European & Arctic Studies. He is a supervisor of several PhD candidates, regularly speaks in international gatherings, and chairs the GlobalArctic Mission Council of the Arctic Circle.

He publishes in, and acts as a reviewer for, international journals & publications. Among his recent publications are ”Comprehensive Security” in Towards a Sustainable Arctic (WSPC 2023); “The Post-Cold War Arctic” in Global Arctic (Springer 2022); ”The Evolving Geopolitics of Polar Regions” (with H. Nicol) in Polar Cousins (UCalgary Press 2022); “Climate Change and the Great Power Rivalry” in Insight Turkey (2022); Arctic Policies and Strategies – Analysis, Synthesis, Trends (with Everett, Padrtova & Reissell, IIASA 2020); Climate Change and Security (with H. Exner-Pirot, Palgrave Pivot 2020).