SPPA PhD Students, Sheena Kennedy and Joshua Gladstone will be speaking at the 2012 Northern Governance and Economy Conference

The Northern Governance and Economy Conference: Pathways to Prosperity will bring together Indigenous and Northern government and business leaders, policy makers, and social activists with academics working on Indigenous and Northern issues for information exchange and networking. Conference participants will reflect on how political institutions in Northern Canada could change to better accommodate shifting governance authorities (land claim, self government, devolution) to create social and economic stability and forge concrete partnerships, mechanisms and strategic goals essential for actioning change toward social and economic stability and prosperity.

The conference will be held October 10-12, 2012 in Yellowknife, NT at the Explorer Hotel.

The conference is expected to attract up to 250 participants from academia, business, NGOs and social advocacy groups, NWT communities and Indigenous governments.

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Conference Co-Chairs

Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox

Based In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Dr. Irlbacher-Fox is a Research Associate with the Institute of Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife and also holds appointments as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Political Science; Research Associate with the Canadian Circumpolar Institute at the University of Alberta; and Research Associate at the Stefansson Arctic Institute, Iceland. [read more]

Willard Hagen

Willard Hagen is of Gwich’in ancestry and was born in Tsiigehtchic, raised in the Travaillant River area, and completed his formal education in Wildlife Management in Inuvik. Mr. Hagen established Aklak Air in the late 1970s and has been a bush pilot and owner/operator for 30 years. [read more]

Stephen Kafwi

Stephen Kakfwi, former Northwest Territories Premier (2000-2003) and Dene Nation President (1983-1987), has been at the forefront of the remarkable political, democratic, environmental, economic, cultural and geo-political transformations taking place over the past quarter century in Canada’s north. [read more]

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Sponsors

Support for this conference has been generously provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, while travel support has been provided by Canadian North Airlines. Additional funds are being sought to enable conference organizers to ensure community and NWT youth participation.

For more information about the