Planning Grant: Moving Forward Together - Transforming Arctic Geosciences for Alaska Native Sovereignty and Science

通过这项为期两年半的计划拨款，阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学（UAF）将为研究生地球科学教育奠定基础，以吸引和支持阿拉斯加原住民，第一代和其他来自代表性不足社区的学生。利用土著方法和知识合作生产原则，项目负责人优先考虑与土著社区和领导层建立校园内外的伙伴关系，这需要关注过程、对话、关系和尊重。这种变革性的方法将融合目前在UAF和更广泛的科学界存在的地球科学、社会科学和土著研究等孤立学科。主要的项目合作伙伴是UAF阿拉斯加本土成功倡议，UAF公平与合规部和第一阿拉斯加研究所。此外，该项目将把UAF校园内目前不同的多样性、公平和包容性团体、现有的学生团体（如有色地球科学家（GeoColor））、UAF教师加速器，以及UAF的其他相关项目（如NSF Tamamta项目和阿拉斯加北极观测站和知识中心）聚集在一起。这项工作将包括为CTGC实施提案奠定基础的活动，该提案以UAF校园内外的实体、学科和倡议的融合为中心，将包括多种认识方式的教学、学习和研究环境制度化，并将UAF地球科学的转型置于多样化和特定的教育机会中，包括体验式和跨文化学习。活动将包括研讨会、培训、对话计划，以及为指导计划和文化营建立基础和框架。在UAF的地球科学领域，机构转型的势头正在形成，一个新的、跨学科的地球系统科学研究生学位课程目前正在接受机构审查。该项目的一个重要方面是通过可持续发展的集中，将可持续发展科学与人文维度相结合。拟议的活动将直接整合到UAF新设计的地球系统科学项目的跨学科可持续性集中。专题重点是北极的快速变化，包括气候变化、影响和适应以及减灾。阿拉斯加土著人民特别容易受到极端气候的影响，他们的价值观和身份认同根植于人类与自然世界之间的深刻关系，而殖民和治理分裂的历史遗产所带来的影响使应对工作复杂化。北纬地区的气候变暖速度是全球其他地区的两倍多。整个州的农村和阿拉斯加土著社区，其中许多只能通过空气或水进入，是最脆弱的，面临着来自洪水、大风、侵蚀、降雨增加、野火增加和极端天气等极端事件对鲑鱼、大型哺乳动物、人类健康和社区基础设施等关键领域的威胁。因此，迫切需要土著专门知识来解决阿拉斯加和北极的这些问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With this 2.5 year planning grant, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) will lay the foundation for graduate geoscience education that is attractive to and supportive of Alaska Native, first-generation, and other students from underrepresented communities. Utilizing Indigenous methodologies and principles of knowledge co-production, the project leaders prioritize building partnerships across and beyond campus with Indigenous communities and leadership which requires a focus on process, dialogue, relationships, and respect. This transformative approach will converge the presently siloed disciplines of geosciences, social sciences, and Indigenous studies present at UAF and in the broader science community. The primary project partners are the UAF Alaska Native Success Initiative, the UAF Department of Equity and Compliance, and the First Alaskans Institute. In addition, the program will bring together currently disparate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion groups across the UAF campus, existing student groups such as Geoscientists of Color (GeoColor), the UAF faculty accelerator, and other related projects at UAF such as the NSF Tamamta Project and the Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub. This effort will include activities that will lay the foundation for a CTGC implementation proposal that is centered around convergence of entities, disciplines, and initiatives across and beyond the UAF campus, institutionalizing a teaching, learning, and research environment that is inclusive of multiple ways of knowing, and contextualizing the transformation of geosciences at UAF within diverse and specific educational opportunities, including experiential and cross-cultural learning. Activities will include a program of workshops, training, dialogues, and establishing the basis and framework for a mentoring program and a culture camp.Momentum has been building in the Geosciences at UAF toward institutional transformation and a new, transdisciplinary graduate degree program in Earth System Science is currently under institutional review. One important aspect of this program is the solid integration of sustainability science and the human dimension through a Sustainability Concentration. The proposed activities will be directly integrated into this transdisciplinary Sustainability Concentration of the newly designed Earth System Science program at UAF. The thematic focus is rapid change in the Arctic including climate change, impacts, and adaptation as well as hazard mitigation. Alaska Native peoples are especially vulnerable to climate extremes, with values and identity rooted in deep relationality between humanity and the natural world and compounding impacts arising from historical legacies of colonization and splintered governance that complicate response efforts. The climate is warming in northern latitudes at over twice the rate of other parts of the globe. Rural and Alaska Native communities throughout the state, many of which are accessible only by air or water, are among the most vulnerable, facing threats to key areas of concern such as salmon, large mammals, human health, and community infrastructure from extreme events such as flooding, high winds, erosion, increased rainfall, increased wildfire, and more extreme weather. Thus, there is an urgent need for Indigenous expertise in addressing these issues in Alaska and the Arctic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.