S.P.A. (Sean) Desjardins, Dr

Education:

• PhD, McGill University (2017)
• MSc, University of Toronto (2008)
• BA, New College of Florida (2004)

Experience:

Since 2010, Sean (settler/non-Indigenous) has been designing and managing research projects in Inuit Nunangat (the traditional Inuit territories of what is now Canada). His interests include Inuit knowledge systems (Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit), oral history, co-creation/facilitation methodologies, long-term human responses to climate change and human/nonhuman-animal relationships. He has also carried out fieldwork in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Yup'ik territories in southwest Alaska, traditional Dene lands of Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT), Svalbard (Spitsbergen), the Southeastern United States and central China. His primary fieldwork is situated in northern Foxe Basin (Amittuq region), Nunavut, Inuit Nunangat.

Along with Annette Scheepstra, Sean represents the Netherlands in the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) of the Arctic Council.  In this capacity, he works to better understand and address issues relating to cultural sustainability, food security and a wide variety of other issues related to Northern livelihoods across the circumpolar Arctic.

Research funding and fellowships:

• European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, 2024-present;
• Dutch Research Council (NWO) Veni grant, 2019-2022;
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2017-2019;
• Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, 2012-2013
• SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, 2011-2014