On Tuesday, February 15, the Native American Studies Department hosted Aviaja L. Hauptmann, an Inuk microbiologist from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and visiting postdoc at UC Davis, who gave a talk about her work on Inuit food systems and the microbial potential of traditional Inuit food practices.

As a research group, we are reading together in anticipation of our visit to Greenland to learn from Inuit fermenters in South Greenland. This eclectic list includes readings, films, and audio about Greenlandic culture, politics, and history. Some of it is created by Inuit Greenlanders and other work is written about Inuit Greenlanders by non-Inuit European and U.S.-based researchers, and other works are created by Arctic Inuit people beyond Greenland. It is not a comprehensive list but has been improvised collectively by group members. 

Books

A new co-authored article by members of the Radical and Relational Fermentation team has been published in Microbiome Research Reports. 

P.L.A.C.E with CAMPSSAH is delighted to announce the recipient of our fall Scholar of the Quarter award–Jessica Bissett Perea (Dena’ina), Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor in Native American Studies!

Connections that UC Davis scholars built across campus and continents have led to a $298,000 National Science Foundation award to engage with Inuit fermenters in South Greenland and support them in naming the desires, obstacles, and concerns for creating a resurgence in Inuit fermented foods. Their research is part of “Navigating the New Arctic,” one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas.

We are thrilled to have Pamyua, an Inuit soul music featuring core members from Alaska and Greenland, visit UC Davis through a residency provided by course "Radical Storywork and Inuit Food Fermentation." The course is part of the SHAPE program, a Mellon Foundation funded project through the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. These residency activities have been designed with our SHAPE students in mind, but we are expanding this learning community with other invited guests.

The Feminist Research Institute (FRI) featured us as part of the "New Knowledge Creators." 

Read the full article here to learn about the NSF-funded projects at FRI. 

At the Feminist Research Institute, we believe in a future of justice and inclusivity, and in a knowledge base made more impactful by intersectional research. And we think this approach to research is a little bit radical.

Jonathan Radocay covered our spring event for the UC Davis Humanities Institute: 

The UC Davis Humanities Institute shares this write-up of our first event in the Radical and Relational Approaches to Fermentation Dialogue Series, from February 2021, written by Maya Weeks. 

Our project, "Community Mentorship Program Pilot for Radical and Relational Approaches to Inuit Food Security" was selected as one of the seven projects supported by UC Davis Global Affairs for advancing sustainable development goals for a better future.

Read more on the Global Affairs website.