Alex Payne
Thesis title: Boundaries of Difference Through Time: Climate Change as a Driver of Historic Othering in the Nordic Circumpolar.
PhD Scandinavian Studies
Year of study: 1
- Scandinavian Studies
- Department of European Languages and Cultures
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Contact details
- Email: s1737021@ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisors:
Background
Alex is a PhD researcher focusing on the role of climate change as a driver of inter-ethnic conflict in the Arctic (Greenland and Sápmi). His research project is part of the Northern Scholars PhD Scheme, a scholarship programme funded by the University of the Arctic (UArctic) network.
Prior to this, Alex studied his MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge - Trinity Hall, researching developments in the literary depictions of Indigenous Americans, particularly between The Vinland Sagas and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha. His interdisciplinary focus on the shifting nature of Norse-Sámi and Norse-Kalaallit relations earned him distinction in his Tripos II examinations.
He is supervised by both the Department of Scandinavian Studies and the School of Geosciences.
Beyond his studies, Alex has: represented Trinity Hall as an LGBTQ+ Officer, project managed the annual Trinity Hall Post-graduate garden party, volunteered for the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (University of Cambridge), worked as an International Secretary whilst on exchange at the University of Uppsala.
Qualifications
MPhil - Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, The University of Cambridge, Trinity Hall.
MA (Hons) - Scandinavian Studies, The University of Edinburgh.
Responsibilities & affiliations
Anglo-Swedish Society - Member.
Research summary
- Environmental Humanities; Arctic and Indigenous Studies.
- Climatology; Arctic Region, Historic and Current.
- Ecocriticism; Medieval Scandinavia, Greenland (Kalaallit and Danish).
- Post-Colonialism; Arctic Governance and Indigenous Rights.
Alex's research focuses on correlating climate data against historic inter-ethnic conflict within the Nordic Circumpolar (Greenland and Sápmi). Traditionally understood through discrete lenses - political, cultural, environmental - this interdisciplinary research seeks to use climate data as a point of comparison for the observed shifts in inter-ethnic relations between circumpolar groups in the Nordic region. This will involve a comparative analysis of the changing depiction of the environment and "ethnic other" within the literatures and oral histories of Scandinavia and Greenland against the backdrop of the climatic shift of the Medieval Warm Period into the Little Ice Age (c.900 - 1400). The intention of this is to understand better the role of climate change in driving interethnic conflict and the creation of boundaries of identity going forward.
Current research interests
Environmental Humanities with a focus on Arctic and Indigenous Studies, Colonialism and Post-Colonialism in the Arctic, Medieval Greenland, Indigenous Rights, Arctic Governance and Sovereignty, Ecocriticism in the Sagas of the Icelanders and Inuit Folktales, The Vinland Sagas.Past research interests
19th-century American literary and visual discourses on Indigeneity and identity: Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Thomas Cole etc. Funerary practice in the Nordic Bronze Age.Current project grants
Northern Scholars Scheme PhD Scholarship in a project relating to ‘Cultural responses to climate change past, present, and future in the Nordic and Baltic world’. (2024-2027) - Funding provided by the University of the Arctic.
Past project grants
Arctic Science Summit Week 2024 - £300 (2024)
LLC conference grant - £410 (2024)
Conference details
February 2nd 2024 - Presented overall summary of MPhil research and part of ongoing PhD project entitled "Environment as a Means of Othering in the Vinland Sagas." The University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences 30th Gradschool Conference.