Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Undergraduate

• U21103: Introduction to Human Geography
• U21109: Geography of the Oxford Region
• U21126: Geographical Enquiry and Field Research
• U21152: Political Geography: Place and Power
• U21171: Atmosphere and Climate
• U21177: Oceans and the Marine Environment
• U21180: Geographical Research and Practice
• U21189: Independent Study in Geography
• U21198: Geography Dissertation

Past involvement (2017/18)

• U21106: Concepts in Geography
• U21127: Culture and Global Change
• U21181: The Geographical Imagination

Supervision

I welcome applications from prospective PhD students interested in political geography, and in particular those looking to study identities, the state, nationalism, and/or Arctic relations.

For current funded opportunities, please see the Research Degrees website.

My research is broadly placed within critical political geography, with links also to cultural and social geography. More specifically, I am interested in questions of identity, political practice, and statehood. My current work explores how state representatives interpret and articulate discourses of identity, and how this may condition political practice; previously I have researched youth identity and political perception. As such, my research centres on the intersections of homelands and territoriality, identity and belonging, geopolitics and nationalism. In particular, I am interested in everyday practices and embodiment among so-called ‘elites’, narratives and personal ‘stories’, and how professionals of statecraft see it from ‘within’ – speaking to critical work that seeks to ‘people’ our conceptualisations of e.g. the state and territory.

My research and publications to date has focused on the Arctic region, and the ways in which this rapidly changing space intersects with geopolitics and identities. While my most recent project looked at the practices of Arctic statecraft, the empirical focus has meant engaging also with geographies of energy and resource extraction, environmental issues, and indigenous and postcolonial topics.

Additionally, I am currently involved in the VELUX foundation-funded project ‘Politics Sustainability and Postcoloniality in the Arctic’, co-led by Associate Professor Ulrik Pram Gad (Copenhagen University) and Associate Professor Jeppe Strandsbjerg (Copenhagen Business School). I am also part of the project “‘Observing’ the Arctic: Asian States and the (Geo) Politics of Involvement in the Arctic Council” co-led by Professor Klaus Dodds (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Assistant Professor Chih Yuan Woon (National University of Singapore), funded by the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Grant.

Research group membership

State and Society

International Political Theory

Culture, Identities and Divisions

 

Journal articles

• Medby IA, 'Articulating state identity: "peopling" the Arctic state'
  Political Geography 62 (2018) pp.116-125
  ISSN: 0962-6298
  Abstract A space in rapid flux, environmentally as well as geopolitically, the Arctic region has not tended to be seen as part of the imagined national “homeland” of the eight states with Arctic territories. Yet, in a time of climate change and increasing international attention to the region, the Arctic is at present re-narrated as a space embedded in sovereign statehood and national identity. Recognising the powerful purchase of identity discourses, of emotional attachment, and feelings of belonging, this paper asks: What does it mean to “be” or represent an Arctic state; how do identity discourses permeate among those tasked with the state's enactment on a daily basis, state personnel? This paper explores articulations of state identity by state practitioners in three of the eight Arctic states: Norway, Iceland, and Canada. In so doing, it develops an understanding of discourses of state identity as spatiotemporally regulated, articulated as geography and history; and yet, it shows how it always comes about through relations and encounters – across, beyond, and exceeding scales, from international relations to the intimately personal. Focusing on the performance of politics, the paper thereby highlights the constitutive role of the diverse practitioners behind the practice, the articulators, and performers. In short, it argues for “peopling” political geographical conceptualisations of the state, statecraft, and political practices. By seeing the state for its people, new avenues for interaction and dialogue may open up – new, radical ways of relating and participating in politics as, of, and by people.Website 
• Bruun JM, Medby IA, 'Theorising the Thaw: Geopolitics in a Changing Arctic'
  Geography Compass 8 (12) (2014)
  ISSN: 1749-8198
  Abstract As the effects of climate change are becoming more and more pronounced, the Arctic region is attracting renewed attention from politicians, transnational corporations, and environmentalists alike, many of whom are based geographically far from the region itself. Interests span from the prospects of vast oil and mineral riches and shorter international shipping routes, to preserving what is often framed as a fragile, pristine environment. As a resource frontier and a wilderness, but also a homeland and a space of culture to its inhabitants, the Arctic is characterised by potentially conflicting geographical imaginaries and visions of both the present as well as the future of the region. Hence, the political geographies of the Arctic are both messy and complex. This paper examines some of the principal themes and issues of Arctic geopolitics and offers a discussion of how scholars of Political Geography have engaged the topic at a time when an increasing number of academics are directing their analytical gaze towards the North. Focusing on publications from the past decade, it aims to contextualise scholarly debates on Arctic geopolitics and illustrate the complexity and richness of the topic.Website 
• Steinberg PE, Bruun JM, Medby IA, 'Covering Kiruna: A natural experiment in Arctic awareness'
  Polar Geography 37 (4) (2014)
  ISSN: 1088-937X eISSN: 1939-0513
  Abstract At a time when the Arctic is attracting increasing international attention and a variety of actors are positioning themselves in anticipation of future developments, news reporters across the world face the challenge of explaining why the Arctic is relevant to the lives and realities of audiences, some of whom are far from the region itself. This challenge was felt particularly profoundly in May 2013, when events and controversies surrounding the Kiruna Arctic Council meeting tasked journalists around the world with explaining to their audiences what it means to have a legitimate interest in the Arctic and why the Arctic matters on a global scale. Media coverage from the eight Arctic Council member states, six candidate states, and six existing permanent observer states thus presented a natural experiment in Arctic awareness. In this article, an analysis of 280 news stories reporting on the Kiruna meeting is used to reveal how the media frame the Arctic as a region of increasing global significance – a region in which present-day participation is a strategic positioning for the future, and in which political presence holds symbolic significance for geopolitical relations far beyond the region's latitudinal borders.Website 
• Medby IA, 'Arctic state, Arctic nation? : Arctic national identity among the post-Cold War generation in Norway'
  Polar Geography 37 (3) (2014)
  ISSN: 1088-937X eISSN: 1939-0513
  Abstract In Norway, the Arctic has taken centre stage as a primary political priority. Claiming status as an ‘Arctic state’ may not be controversial based on formal geographical and legal definitions; however, the way in which the Arctic has thus been incorporated in the public's sense of Norwegian national identity is less clear. Against the background of the Norwegian government's discursive construction of a national Arctic identity in its High North strategy, this study assesses the reception this official identity has received. Over 200 young Norwegians, having largely grown up in a post-Cold War world marked by rapidly changing Arctic climate and geopolitics, were asked about their sense of Arctic identity. Contrary to governmental efforts to frame the Arctic as a fundamentally national matter, the respondents' insights highlight the multifaceted nature of identities, as a sense of Arctic identity contextually shifts between sub-national, national and supranational scales. This study thus suggests a balancing act faced by states across the region as they seek to legitimize state-level primacy and national unity in the circumpolar North.Website 

Book chapters

• Medby IA, 'Sustaining the Arctic Nation State: The Case of Norway, Iceland, and Canada' in Gad UP, Strandsbjerg, J (ed.), The Politics of Sustainability in the Arctic: Reconfiguring Identity, Space, and Time, Routledge (2018)
  ISBN: 9781138491830 eISBN: 9781351031981
  Abstract

  The aim of ensuring Arctic sustainability seems universally agreed upon – even if the aim remains both undefined and contested in terms of sustainability of what, where, how, and by whom. The eight Arctic states – the full members of the Arctic Council with territory north of the Arctic Circle – not only hold particular rights here, but also particular responsibilities; among these is arguably a key role in ensuring Arctic sustainability. The title of ‘Arctic state’ is to be actively performed, and in the process becomes tied to questions of ‘who we are’ as a nation state. This chapter explores how discourses of sustainability become tied to those of national identity in the Arctic states, and in the process, the former comes to reproduce and reify the latter. Focusing on three of the eight Arctic states – Norway, Iceland, and Canada – the chapter draws on interviews with state personnel about their sense of an ‘Arctic identity’. Through their statements of ‘sustainable’ practices demonstrative of an identity – a seemingly inherent characteristic of the national community – they also indirectly ‘sustain’ the image and idea of the nation state itself.
  

  Website 
• Medby IA, 'Preface' in Kelman I (ed.), Arcticness: Power and Voice from the North, UCL Press (2017)
  ISBN: 9781787350144 eISBN: 9781787350120
  Website 
• Medby, IA, 'Big Fish in a Small (Arctic) Pond: Regime Adherence as Status and Arctic State Identity in Norway' in Heininen L, Exner-Pirot H, Plouffe, J (ed.), Arctic Yearbook 2015, Northern Research Forum (2015)
  ISBN: none
  Abstract Despite frequent reassurances that the Arctic region’s regime of governance rests soundly on two mutually reinforcing pillars: the Arctic Council intergovernmental cooperation and the international UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), doubt is still cast time and time again on the durability of Arctic peace and stability. Explanations for the regime’s strength are often based on classical theories of international relations, wherein traditional concepts of power-struggles ensure the relative benefit of state cooperation in the region. However, the case is here made that adherence to the present Arctic regime of governance is not just a matter of material or strategic importance for the eight so-called Arctic states. It is also a matter of status, pride, and identity; indeed, perceptions of a state’s role in the world are a powerful and often underestimated force in determining interstate relations. Examining the specific case of one Arctic state, Norway, the paper explores how a state identity linked to the status granted by the current regime of governance guides political practices. This is done by drawing on a range of interviews with Norwegian state officials. For these, Arctic statehood is tied to political status, leverage, and legitimacy, thereby contributing to a positive selfperception and an advantageous international position. Furthermore, this is linked to pre-existing idea(l)s of ‘essential’ Norwegian history, culture, and values. Thus, through adopting a self-perception founded on the present Arctic regime of governance, the latter is discursively and normatively strengthened and reified, showing the potential potency of a political, state identity.Website 

Reviews

• Medby IA, Review of "Ice: Nature and Culture" by Klaus Dodds, in cultural geographies (2018) ISSN: 1474-4740 eISSN: 1477-0881
  Website 
• Medby IA, review of "The Spectral Arctic: A History of Dreams and Ghosts in Polar Exploration" / by Shane McCorristine. [ISBN: 9781787352476; 9781787352452], in Antipode (2018) ISSN: 0066-4812 eISSN: 1467-8330
  Website 
• Medby IA, review of "Far Off Metal River: Inuit Lands, Settler Stories, and the Making of the Contemporary Arctic" by Emilie Cameron, in cultural geographies 23 (4) (2016) ISSN: 1474-4740 eISSN: 1477-0881
  Website 

Other publications

• Medby, IA, 'Why an indigenous fancy dress gaffe by Norway’s finance minister was no laughing matter'
  (2017) Abstract https://theconversation.com/why-an-indigenous-fancy-dress-gaffe-by-norways-finance-minister-was-no-laughing-matter-86096
• Medby, IA, 'Peopling the State: Arctic State Identity in Norway, Iceland, and Canada'
  (2017) Abstract As increasing levels of attention are directed northwards to the rapidly changing Arctic region, states and stakeholders from near and far position themselves in anticipation of what is yet to come – challenges and opportunities, Arctic futures. For the eight Arctic states with territory north of the Arctic Circle, this has prompted new emphasis on their ‘Arctic identities’: political claims of homelands and histories through which formal credibility and authority are consolidated and normalised. However, as a space that has often been imagined in terms of distances, frontiers, ice, cold, and snow, Arctic identity narratives are a matter of re-interpretation, re-negotiation, and re-imagination of the ‘nation-state’, who and where ‘we’ are.
  
  While emotive statements of identity may or may not resonate with electorates, what has hitherto been less explored is how these work within the state itself to condition political practice. That is, how a formal title of Arctic statehood is understood, related to, and subsequently enacted by those tasked with its everyday performance – indeed, the everyday practices through which the ‘Arctic state’ emerges as such. Recognising the state as an idea(l) that only ‘materialises’ as an effect of practice arguably necessitates attention to those performing said practices – state personnel.
  
  To this end, I here introduce the concept of ‘state identity’ discourses in order to explore how state representatives’ articulations of identity are bounded in spatiotemporal terms, and yet, are always relational; the Arctic state comes about through encounters at all scales of interaction, from the international to the intimately personal. With reflections from state representatives in three of the eight Arctic states – Norway, Iceland, and Canada – I argue that we need to acknowledge the numerous subjectivities, stories, and relations through which the Arctic state comes into being, thereby ‘peopling’ the state.
  Website 
• Medby IA, 'From Black Gold to a Blue Economy?'
  (2015) Website 

Other publicity

Selected op-eds and online commentaries:

Medby, I.A. (2018). Commentary: Difficult dialogues may matter the most. High North News [online].

Medby, I.A. (2018). Op-Ed: The Arctic beyond Latitudes. High North News [online].

Medby, I.A. (2017). Commentary: The Arctic’s Nearest Neighbours: From High North to Northern Highlands. High North News [online].

Medby, I.A. (2017). Commentary: The High North – Seen From the South-East. High North News [online].

Medby, I.A. (2017). Why an Indigenous fancy dress gaffe by Norway’s finance minister was no laughing matter. The Conversation [online]. 

Medby, I.A. (2016). ‘Christmas Treeplomacy’ and what the Arctic can teach us about goodwill geopolitics. The Conversation [online]. 

Medby, I.A. (2016). Blue-Green Frontiers? Arctic in Context: World Policy Blog [online]. 

Medby, I.A. (2015). From Black Gold to a Blue Economy? The Arctic Institute: Center for Circumpolar Security Studies [online]. 

 

Further information

Twitter: @IngridAgnete

High North News: Commentaries

ORCiD: Profile