Seals, Stigma and Survival includes team members and observers connected to research and representation across the Nordic region (including Åland Islands, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden), parts of Northern Canada and Estonia.
Dr. Danita Catherine Burke is a senior research fellow at the University of Southern Denmark and the founder of the Women in the Arctic and Antarctic. Burke is from rural Newfoundland. Her research areas cover topics such as cultural violence, anti-sealing activism, Arctic diplomacy, environmental activism legacies and Canadian identification with the North. She is the author of Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North (2025, Routledge), Cultural Violence, Stigma and the Legacy of the Anti-Sealing Movement (2023, Routledge), WWF and Arctic environmentalism (2022, Manchester University Press), “Re-establishing Legitimacy after Stigmatization: Greenpeace in the North American North” (2020, Polar Record) and Diplomacy and the Arctic Council (2019, McGill-Queens University Press)
Webpages: (1) University of Southern Denmark; (2) SDU Arctic; and (3) Women in the Arctic and Antarctic
Erik Kielsen works for the development company Innovation South Greenland, where he is a consultant for fishermen and hunters, as well as other businesses and companies. He also owns and operates a small company Kielsen`s Coordination, where he specializes in coordinating logistics for Arctic researchers and journalists in preparation for their work in South Greenland. He also works as a guide, translator, runner, and more for researchers and journalists as part of his logistics coordination.
Webpages:
(1) Innovation South Greenland
(2) Hunter’s Eye in South Greenland
(3) Innovation South Greenland – Facebook Page
Contributor to: “Community knowledge exchange in research leads to innovation and action in the Arctic” – Arctic Science 11(2024): 1-12
Mr. James Winter is a Newfoundlander and the founding president of the Canadian Sealers Association. He is a retired writer/broadcaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and co-hosted a number of programs including “The Fisherman’s Broadcast” based in Newfoundland and Labrador. Later Winter worked in the Canadian civil service for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and he also worked for an international fishing company headquartered in Newfoundland. While a journalist he won the award as “best writer radio” from the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists (ACTRA). As a journalist, Winter first became involved in sealing when he investigated and reported on the hunt and the protests against it from on the ice. He became a licensed sealer and conducted participant observation of the seal hunt off the coast of Newfoundland in 1977 and 1978.
Webpage: Interview with Jim Winter
Dr Charlotta Hilli is a lecturer and associate professor in pedagogy at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Her research interests include flexible and accessible distance and online education in rural areas, and she has been involved in projects developing remote education options in Finland and Sweden.
Webpage: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/charlotta-hilli/
