Gunnar Knapp, ISER’s director since 2013 and a professor of economics at ISER for 35 years, has announced he will retire from the University of Alaska Anchorage in June 2016. But after retiring he plans to work part-time with ISER, in particular continuing his research and public outreach to help Alaskans understand the big fiscal challenges the state faces. He will also continue his decades-long research on Alaska’s salmon industry and salmon markets, which has earned him an international reputation as a fisheries economist.
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News and Announcements
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Heather Hudson will discuss her new book, Connecting Alaskans: Telecommunications in Alaska from Telegraph to Broadband, on Monday, October 26, from 5 to 7 in Room 307 of the UAA/APU Consortium Library. Dr. Hudson is an affiliate professor of communications policy at ISER and was ISER's director from 2010 to 2012. This is a UAA Campus Bookstore event, and it is free and open to the public.
Connecting Alaskans, published by the University of Alaska Press in September 2015, describes the history of extending communication services—telephone, radio, television, and the Internet—throughout rural Alaska. The book analyzes successful policies and strategies to serve Alaska’s remote regions, and describes how Alaskans’ innovation, advocacy, and persistence helped connect more than 200 isolated villages. It also discusses the role of telecommunications in Alaska’s rural development.
Free parking for this event is in the Library Lot, Library NE Lot , and the East Garage (see map). For more information, get in touch with Rachel Epstein at 907-786-4782 or repstein2@uaa.alaska.edu.
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About 1 in 7 adult Alaskans is a military veteran, and veterans are eligible for federal and state services ranging from health care to special license plates. A new report, Alaska Veterans Needs Assessment, describes how much veterans know about the available services and what improvements they'd like to see in service delivery. The report authors are ISER researchers Mouhcine Guettabi, an assistant professor of economics, and Rosyland Frazier, a research associate.
They did the research for the Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs, and their findings are based on survey responses of nearly 600 veterans; focus groups of women veterans and disabled veterans; and interviews with people in organizations that help veterans apply for services. They found that veterans want less delay and more help in enrolling for benefits, as well as more frequent and easily accessible information about the available benefits—and any changes in benefits. But they want that information tailored to younger and older veterans and to men and women veterans, who have different needs. Veterans suggested that agencies hold seminars to explain specific benefits, send monthly or quarterly electronic newsletters, and make it simpler to find specific benefit information on federal and state web sites.
Download the report, Alaska Veterans Needs Assessment (PDF, 661.3 KB). If you have questions, get in touch with Rosyland Frazier at 907-786-5432 or rrfrazier@alaska.edu.
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A new book by Heather Hudson, an ISER fellow and former director, documents the history of telecommunications in Alaska over a century, from the beginnings of telegraph communications through the spread of broadband today. Dr. Hudson describes the considerable challenges of bringing reliable telecommunications to a huge state with hundreds of small isolated communities, difficult terrain, and harsh weather. The 380-page book is available in both printed and electronic versions from the publisher, the University of Alaska Press.
For ordering information, please visit Connecting Alaskans.
Professor Hudson can be reached at hehudson@uaa.alaska.edu.
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A new study by ISER researchers Heather Hudson, Suzanne Sharp, and Alexandra Hill describes how businesses, government agencies, and schools are using broadband that is now available in much of southwest Alaska. The results are based on a telephone survey of private and public organizations in the region.
Download the report (PDF, 643.8KB). If you have questions, get in touch with Dr. Heather Hudson at hehudson@uaa.alaska.edu.
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Our new location is near East High School and about two blocks from the intersection of Northern Lights Blvd. and Bragaw Street.
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List of news articles from 2014 that reference ISER studies or researchers.
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The Alaska Energy Statistics final report for 2011, by ISER researchers Ginny Fay and Alejandra Villalobos-Meléndez, is now available. It is the most recent update of annual reports funded by the Alaska Energy Authority. It examines how much electricity individual utilities generated in 2011 (the most recent year for which complete data are available), with what types of fuel, at what electric rates, and with what level of CO2 emissions.
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Ms. Rönkä will present research on the impacts of globalization on the lives of pulp mill workers in Northern Finland, city of Kemijärvi. Due to global increases in efficiency of production, pulp mills and factories in Finland were offshored to the global south. Her qualitative study examined how the workers experienced the mill closures and how the closures affected their lives and livelihoods. The research demonstrates that when globalization research is confined to large macro level economic, political and cultural processes, it excludes examination of how the impact of global flows is influenced by the history, culture, and social structure of local contexts. One way to understand complex globalization processes better is to examine them through place-based, lived experiences.
Anna Reetta Rönkä graduated in 2010 with an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from University of Oulu, Faculty of Humanities. The UAA Department of Public Health is currently sponsoring Ms. Rönkä as a visiting scholar while she is working on her doctoral research about the experience of loneliness from childhood to adulthood in Northern Finland. Her current research interests include: socio-emotional wellbeing and health in circumpolar societies, gendered experiences of loneliness, and social isolation. Her affiliations are Women´s and Gender Studies, Faculty of Education and Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu Finland.
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For ten years, the United States has been mapping the continental shelf in all of its marine regions—from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Pacific and Arctic oceans. Betsy Baker, a professor at Vermont Law School, has sailed with two of the Arctic mapping cruises on the USCGC Healy, and recently completed ten months in the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, at the U.S. State Department, preparing documentation to help establish the extent of U.S. continental shelf rights under international law. Dr. Baker spoke at ISER November 14, 2013 about that process and the practical implications for Alaska’s Arctic, as well as developments in the Gulf of Mexico.