News and Announcements

Jennifer I. Schmidt, ISER researcher and Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management, is co-author of an article that explores the importance and development of relationships with local, often Indigeneous populations, to manage resources in remote Arctic locations. "The Role of Trust in Sustainable Management of Land, Fish, and Wildlife Populations in the Arctic" appears in the Sustainable and Rural Development section of the September issue of Sustainability, an international, cross-disciplinary journal.

All Americans spend a lot to get health care—but Alaskans spend the most per resident, face the highest insurance premiums, and have seen overall spending grow much faster. Jessica Passini, Rosyland Frazier, and Mouhcine Guettabi of ISER have compiled a chart book of  publically available information on health-care spending in Alaska and nationwide since the 1990s and highlight some trends in a new publication, “Trends in Alaska’s Health-Care Spending.”The chart book, available online, synthesizes a wide range of data and present it as an objective, easy-to-use resource.  The authors hope this broad information on trends in health-care spending will help Alaskans better understand what happened, consider possible reasons why, and think about potential ways to change the upward spiral.

Staff from the State of Alaska Section of Chronic Disease Prevention will present the results of a simulation model of a $0.03-per-ounce- state excise tax on sugary drinks in Alaska. The simulation was conducted by the Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) research team from the Harvard School of Public Health using Alaska BRFSS data and sugary drink prices.

When: Wednesday, September 26, 12 to 1
Where: ISER Conference Room, Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw Street, Suite 301

Note: This talk will not be live streamed or recorded.

University of Alaska faculty and administrators have leadership roles in several national and international Arctic research organizations, including ISER’s own Diane Hirshberg. In December 2017, Dr. Hirshberg was elected to a three-year term on the Board of the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. Dr. Hirshberg also was re-elected to a second three-year term on in the International Arctic Social Sciences Association Council in June 2017. In addition, she continues to serve as Advisor to the UAA Chancellor on Arctic Research & Education, facilitating UAA’s engagement in the University of the Arctic (UArctic), building the Arctic research community at UAA, and co-organizing the Anchorage Arctic Research Days along with ARCUS, the Institute of the North and the Anchorage Museum.

The ARCUS Board is led by another UAA faculty member, Board President Dr. Audrey Taylor, an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at UAA. Dr. Taylor is in her second three-year term on the board, and was elected President in December. Another UAA professor, Dr. Jeffrey Welker, Professor of Biological Sciences, is serving in a new leadership capacity in Arctic research. In 2017, he was appointed the first UArctic Research Chair (a collaborative appointment between UArctic, the University of Oulu and the University of Alaska Anchorage). His role is to implement and drive collaborative actions among UArctic members; develop research cooperation that includes undergraduate, graduate, PhD and postdoctoral scientist training; and build partnerships with the broader Arctic community. Finally, in June 2018 University of Alaska Fairbanks Vice Chancellor for Research Larry Hinzman was elected president of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Council.

There are many other University of Alaska faculty and administrators taking leadership in national and international Arctic research and education efforts and organizations, and ISER is pleased to be a part of this important work.

Matt Reimer is the lead author of the Outstanding Article Award in Marine Resource Economics for 2017.

Check out the article "Fisheries Production: Management Institutions, Spatial Choice, and the Quest for Policy Invariance."

The Alaska Division of Elections asked ISER to survey voters in three southwest Alaska census areas, to ask what methods they'd like to use for voting in the future. More than 400 registered voters took the survey: 49% wanted to keep voting as they do now, at polling places; 36% preferred to get ballots in the mail and have options for returning them; and 14% wanted to get ballots in the mail and mail them back.

The division is interested in what voters prefer for the future, because it will soon need to replace state voting equipment that's outdated and expensive to repair. Interviewers called voters in the Bethel, Dillingham, and Kusilvak census areas and got a 70% response rate.

Download the report, Perceptions of Universal Ballot Delivery Systems, by Virgene Hanna and Jessica Passini.  If you have questions about the survey, get in touch with Virgene Hanna, ISER's survey director, at mhanna7@alaska.edu.

Alaska has hundreds of commercial fisheries, and fishery managers issue unique permits for each fishery. But in a new blog post, Matt Reimer, an ISER economist, and his co-authors report that many of those who fish in Alaska waters have multiple permits, allowing them to take catches in different fisheries. That means if managers change a policy for one fishery—for instance, reducing the catch limit—permit holders could react by changing where they fish, going after different species, or using different gear.

So how can managers assess whether a policy change in one commercial fishery might have such unintended consequences in others? Matt Reimer and his co-authors argue that having statistical data on cross-fishery networks among permit holders—and analyzing those data—could help managers better understand the potential spillover effects of changing policies for a given fishery. The authors also created an interactive map, showing existing cross-fishery networks. Check out the blog.

If you have questions, get in touch with Matt Reimer at: mreimer2@alaska.edu or 907-786-5430.

On June 13, 1988, after decades of Cold War tensions in the Bering Strait, Alaska Airlines’ “Friendship Flight” flew from Nome to Provideniya, in what was then the USSR. That historic flight reunited long-separated Native peoples of Alaska and Russia and helped end the Cold War. David Ramseur, a former visiting scholar of public policy at ISER and author of the book, Melting the Ice Curtain, was on that flight. At a free lecture at the Anchorage Museum, he will talk about the flight and lead a panel discussion among others who were also aboard, including Gunnar Knapp, a former ISER director. The panelists will recall that day, and discuss how it prescribes a course for U.S.-Russia relations today.

Where: Anchorage Museum, 625 C St
When: Thursday, May 31, 6:30 p.m.
Note: Use the museum’s 7th Avenue entrance.

Researchers at ISER's Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) have recently published two articles examining issues important to Alaska's teachers.

• It’s more than just dollars: Problematizing salary as the sole mechanism for recruiting and retaining teachers in rural Alaska, by Dayna DeFeo, Diane Hirshberg, and Lexi Hill. This article, published in the Alaska Native Studies Journal, argues that improving teacher retention in Alaska’s rural schools will require both adequate pay and attention to working conditions. Full text available for download.

 

• Statute and implementation: How phantom policies affect tenure value and support, by Dayna DeFeo, Matt Berman, and Diane Hirshberg.  This article, published in Educational Policy, discusses how teachers and principals understand, inflate, or underestimate tenure protections, and how those interpretations affect the perceived value and effectiveness of the tenure policy itself. Abstract available for download, full text available for purchase.

Around the world, there is growing interest in decentralized sources of energy production and distribution. Costs of solar, wind, and energy-efficiency technologies have also been dropping, making them attractive alternatives to fossil fuels. But those changes disrupt the business model of utilities and present unique challenges and opportunities.

Martin Boucher, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan, will talk about his research on socio-technical energy transitions and discuss his preliminary thoughts about his work-in-progress, comparing transitions in three Northern cities: Saskatoon in Canada, Lulea in Sweden, and Anchorage.

When: Tuesday, May 22, 12 to 1