Research and Development Project Manager, Société d’habitation du Québec, Québec

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Shortly after graduating from Laval University in 2012, Hélène Arsenault was hired by the Société d’Habitation du Québec, among the technical expertise team dedicated to the constructions and renovations of social housing in Nunavik. Her main interests are energy efficient technologies and other ways to improve the resilience and independence from fossil fuels in the Northern communities.

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Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland 

Trevor Bell is a physical geographer and field scientist who studies landscape and seabed history from a variety of perspectives to address a range of research questions from theoretical to applied. His approach is strongly interdisciplinary and collaborative, involving analysis and expertise from a range of disciplines in the earth, life, and social sciences. His current project titles illustrate this approach and provide a general picture of my research pursuits: Dynamics of the Newfoundland Ice Cap, Mapping postglacial sea levels and submerged landscapes, Prehistoric settlement, subsistence and environment in Newfoundland, Multibeam bathymetric mapping for seabed morphology and habitat classification, Climate sensitivity of tundra and boreal ecosystems in Labrador highlands, and Climate-change impacts in Arctic coastal communities.

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Professor, School of Architecture, Université Laval, Québec

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Myriam Blais, architect and professor, studied at the Université Laval and did her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.  She teaches architectural design, architectural theories and research and creation methods. Her research interests focus on theories of representation, representations and cultures and the role of poetics in architecture. She is a member of the research group Habitats + Cultures with collaborative experience in Vietnam, and now involved in a research partnership with the Inuit and Innu communities of Northern Québec. She has been active on the Canadian Architectural Certification Board.

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Professeur titulaire, École d'architecture de l'Université Laval

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André Casault, architect and professor at the School of Architecture of Université Laval. His research interests are concerned with cross-cultural and participatory aspects of the architectural design process. He teaches courses on vernacular architecture and architecture, planning and international co-operation as well as design studios on “Habitability and poetic of space and “Habitats and cultures”. For the last 40 years, he has been involved in major research and collaborative projects in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, and with citizen groups and native people communities in Canada.

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Professor, Department of Geography, Université Bordeaux-Montaigne, France; Director, Passages (CNRS, UMR 5319)

Béatrice Collignon teaches social and cultural geography at the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne. She has served as vice-director of the CNRS “Mutations Polaires” research group from 2011 to 2014 and is now head of the multidisciplinary research unit Passages (CNRS, UMR 5319). Her work focuses on non-academic geographic knowledge. She has been conducting fieldwork among the Inuit of the Western Canadian Arctic (Inuvialuit and Inuinnait) since the early 1990s, studying toponymic systems, spatial orientation, oral tradition in relation to landscapes and worldviews, pre-settlement and contemporary domestic spaces. She is currently researching Inuinnait short-duration travels within and outside the Arctic. She is the author of Knowing places - The Inuinnait, landscapes and the environment, 2006, CCI Press, Edmonton, and of numerous articles and book chapters on the Inuit as well as on geography epistemologies. She has also produced four video documentaries on various aspects of Inuinnait culture.

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Associate executive Director, Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik

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Rhoda Cookie was born in Kuujjuaraapik in 1963. From 1993, she left her community for 15 years in order to study and work in Montréal. During that period, she also traveled to Algeria for 1 year. She completed a degree in financial management in 2005. Back in her hometown, she occupied different management positions: Center Director of the school, manager of the airport and general manager at the Co-op store. She was recently hired as the assistant executive director of Saturviit Inuit Women's Association of Nunavik. Rhoda has 5 children and 3 grandchildren. She loves traveling, educating herself on different cultures, educating her follows and learning from them.

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Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Université Laval, Québec 

Retired since 2011, Louis-Jacques Dorais has taught anthropology at Université Laval (Quebec City) for some 40 years. He is the author of Quaqtaq: Modernity and Identity in an Inuit Community (University of Toronto Press, 1997), and the editor of Quaqtaq’s Rev. Eva Deer’s autobiography: Eva Deer: An Inuit Leader and Educator (Université Laval, CIÉRA, 2015).

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Patrick Evans, Professor, School of Design, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) 

Patrick Evans is an architect and design professor at UQAM’s School of Design in Montreal. He is also co-founder of the architecture and design group MEDIUM. His projects examine the relationships between design, climate and culture in northern environments.

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Architect and Founding Partner, EVOQ (formerly FGMDa)

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Alain Fournier Architect (B. Arch 1975 McGill U) is a founding partner of EVOQ (formerly FGMDa). His first personal contact with the Inuit of Nunavut was in 1970. Since 1983, he has cumulated over thirty years of experience working as an architectural consultant with Inuit and First Nations. He has worked in the Inuit Nunangat territories (Nunavik, Nunavut and Nunatsiavut) as well as with the Cree of Eyou Istchee, the Mi’gmaq, the Innu, the Anishnabeg and the Mohawks Mr. Fournier considers it his mission to actively contribute to the promotion and development of Canada’s Indigenous cultures through their built environment.

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Professor, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway

Lisbet Harboe is an architect and Assistant Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). Currently, Lisbet coordinates the Master in Urbanism programme and teaches in the Urban Design Studio on Arctic cities at the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape. Her research interests are innovative urban practices, Arctic urbanism, and place-specific strategies. In 2012 she received her PhD at AHO with the dissertation titled: “Social Concerns in Contemporary Architecture: Three European Practices and Their Works”. Harboe has been working as a practitioner and has run her own practice. Her research is based in an interest for urban practices and contemporary architectural works, including their material and social capacities, to pursue expansions of architectural and urban knowledge.

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PhD Candidate, School of Architecture, McGill University, Montreal

A doctoral candidate at McGill University, Susane Havelka investigates Inuit self-built houses and building systems in the Eastern Arctic. Her research integrates the study of cultural landscapes and the use of space by examining how Inuit construct, experience and inhabit their dwellings. By documenting and analyzing specific spatial traditions and constructions, in both government-built settlements and Inuit-built outpost camps, Susane posits Inuit as active spatial agents. She earned a Master of Architecture degree at Columbia and a Bachelor of Science in Art and Design at MIT. Susane is also an educational councillor for MIT and a member of the Energy, Environment and Sustainability Network and has practiced as an architect in New York, Berlin, Prague and Montreal.

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Founder and CEO, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Fairbanks, Alaska

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Jack Hébert is Founder and CEO of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, an organization committed to promoting safe, affordable, durable, and energy efficient housing for cold climate regions. For the past 40 years, Jack has been designing and building in Interior Alaska through his companies Taiga Woodcraft and Hébert Homes. His homes and planned communities have created many high-quality, well-designed, environmentally appropriate, and energy-efficient buildings.  He has received numerous honors, including the U.S. Green Building Council Cascadia Fellowship in recognition of his contributions to sustainable building, design, and science; the State of Alaska Governors Award for Excellence in Energy Efficient Design; and the Energy Rated Homes Presidents Award. He has twice been honored as the Alaska State Home Builder of the Year. Jack believes that only through a holistic approach can we create healthy, thriving, sustainable communities. Working together Alaskans have the deep commitment to place and the creative talent to create a healthy future for generations.

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Associate Professor, Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway 

Peter Hemmersam is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape. He is trained as an architect and is a former partner in the architectural practice Transform. His main research interest lies in the field of urban design and ecological urbanism, and he is currently undertaking research on circumpolar landscapes in the project Future North. He is also a research fellow at the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art.

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Executive Director, Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik

Caroline Hervé is associate professor at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. She recently published Le pouvoir vient d’ailleurs. Leadership et coopération au Nunavik (2015, PUL). As a political anthropologist, she seeks to understand transformation and specificities of past and present power dynamics in Inuit societies. From 2010 to 2015, she has coordinated a CURA program “Inuit Leadership and Governance in Nunavut and Nunavik.” Since 2014, she has served as the Executive Director of Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik.

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PhD candidate, Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and Barents Institute, University of Tromsø

Morgan Ip is a PhD research fellow at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, and is part of the Future North project. He received an M. Arch. from Carleton University, with a thesis centred on participatory co-design in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. He also worked as a research assistant on two interdisciplinary International Polar Year projects, and at Lateral Office, a Toronto firm with extensive experience tackling architectural and cultural design challenges of the Arctic. He is a member of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS).

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MA Candidate, Queen's College Memorial University, Newfoundland

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In the second year of his MA degree at Memorial University in archaeology, Vincent Jankunis had previous archaeological experience in cultural resource management in Alberta and B.C. where he searched for archaeological sites and traditional use areas on lands slated for development. His interest in the past lies in the day-to-day life of people; how activities affect groups and individuals; and what impact this may have in the present. Under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Rankin, he is studying these themes during a period of Inuit winter communal living in Labrador.

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Political scientist and anthropologist, researcher and author, founder and past president of Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik

Lisa Koperqualuk was born in Puvirnituq on the eastern shore of Northern Quebec where she was raised by her grandparents Lydia and Aisa Koperqualuk. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Concordia University in Montreal and her Master’s degree in Anthropology from Laval University in Quebec City. Her interests lie in the political and community development of the Inuit communities. As an anthropologist and writer she has examined the political and religious dynamics in her community as well as how Inuit perceive customary law in Nunavik. Her thesis dealt with the Inuit belief system and the history of the transition to Christianity as lived by the Inuit, the history of the missionaries’ role and how the belief system influences Inuit political dynamics today. A research project in the framework of the gathering of historical information done through Avataq Cultural Institute brought her to examine Inuit customary law as seen through the eyes of the Inuit of Nunavik, resulting in the publication Traditions Relating to Customary Law of Nunavimmiut. As one of the founders and former president of Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik, the issues of social justice concerning Inuit women and children were central and lead to a study looking into the Inuit women’s situation in Nunavik based on their perspective. The Restore Hope and Peace study report brought up issues expressed by the women such as housing needs, education and employment, violence and abuse and the justice system in Nunavik, to name a few.

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Project Director, Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik

Pascale Laneuville studies in anthropology at Université de Montréal and at Université Laval. During her master degree, she travelled to Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake, Nunavut) to study the impact of the opening of a gold mine on the Inuit’s uses of the land and their harvesting activities. She was then recruited by Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik to carry out a broad study on the living conditions, concerns and needs of Inuit women. After writing and publishing a comprehensive report, she continued to work for Saturviit on different projects, such as a regional conference and a survey on missing or murdered Inuit women. She has now been with the association for more than 3 years where she works as a project manager.

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Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Université Laval, Quebec

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Denise Piché retired last year after 37 years at the School of architecture. She studied in psychology and urban planning, and holds a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning (LSE). Her research interests are in the domains of persons-environment relationships as well as in urban planning and development. She is a member of a multidisciplinary partnership project on “Living in Northern Quebec”, working on a planning history of Indigenous settlements in Canada, with a focus on the province of Québec. In recent years, she also worked in collaborative projects in Hànoi and Dakar.

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PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Rudy Riedlsperger is a PhD candidate (Geography) at Memorial University in St. John’s Newfoundland supervised by Dr. Trevor Bell and Dr. Arn Keeling. He is interested in research for Arctic sustainability, in particular approaches to resolving current housing crises that affect the health and well-being of individuals and communities in the Canadian North. His Master’s research explored how climatic and socioeconomic changes affect winter travel routes in Inuit communities of Nunatsiavut.

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Associate Professor of Anthropology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Professor Edmund Searles is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.  His main interests include the anthropology of identity, place, food, and Inuit-settler relations in Nunavut.

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Architect and CEO of NORDEC Consulting and Design

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Bill Semple is an architect, builder, researcher and consultant with a background in design, community facilitation, building science, construction and environmental planning. Bill has a Bachelor in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, a Masters in Environmental Design (Architecture) from the University of Calgary and is a licensed carpenter.  He is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta where his thesis work is focusing on developing and evaluating an architectural design process for working with Indigenous communities. For over ten years, he worked as a Senior Researcher responsible for northern housing research with the CMHC. Developing a design process for working in remote indigenous northern communities, He now operates a consulting business, NORDEC Consulting and Design, where he works on sustainable housing and community design, building science, and research projects in the Canadian north and on international development projects. 

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Associate Professor, School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, and co-founder, Lateral Office, Toronto Lola Sheppard

Lola Sheppard, is Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo. She has been examining the role of architecture in remote regions, particularly the North, for the past five years. Recognizing that the challenges for remote inhabitation extend beyond merely more infrastructure or new technologies, her work tests the potential for architecture and infrastructure to be geographically scalable, environmentally adaptable, and multi-purpose in its programmability. She is the co-author of the upcoming book Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory (Actar 2015) and of Pamphlet Architecture 30, COUPLING: Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism (Princeton 2011). 

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Associate professor, Ontario College of Art and Design University

Marie-Josée Therrien is an associate professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, where she teaches design and architectural history. In addition to her academic career, Therrien has worked at the Museum of Canadian History, the National Film Board and she has been a consultant for CBC-Radio Canada and Parks Canada. Her research explores design and the built environment in the context of the North American.  She has recently published “Built to Educate: The Architecture of Schools in the Arctic from 1950 to 2007” (2015) which examines how design informs us about the intentions of the various stakeholders involved in the establishment of schools in the Arctic communities

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Professor, School of architecture, Université Laval, Québec

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Geneviève Vachon is an architect and professor of urban design and housing at Quebec City’s School of Architecture. She holds a PhD in planning from MIT. She has orchestrated collaborative design processes and conducted design-research projects on subjects such as the adaptation of urban areas to climate change. She is the director of the SSHRC-funded research partnership "Living in northern Quebec: Mobilizing, understanding, imagining", on the culturally appropriate and sustainable planning of Innu and Inuit living environments.

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