Dr Danita Burke - orcid.org/0000-0002-6169-0813
Northern Scholars Visiting Research Fellow, October 2022 - April 2023
Home Institution: University of Southern Denmark
Dr. Danita Catherine Burke is the founder of the Women in the Arctic and Antarctic initiative and a research fellow based at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, where she works on issues such as Arctic diplomacy, cultural violence in eco-activism, environmental and animal rights activism accountability, environmental policy as a tool for sovereignty assertion, and Canada’s relationship and identification with the North. She completed her PhD studies in International Politics at Aberystwyth University in 2016, supported by a fellowship from the Rothermere Foundation. Since 2016, Dr. Burke’s academic work is based in Denmark and her research has been supported by a Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and a research fellowship from the JR Smallwood Foundation for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies. Her publications include two forthcoming books: WWF and Arctic Environmentalism: Conservationism and the ENGO in the Circumpolar North (Manchester University Press) and Cultural Violence, Stigma and the Legacy of the Anti-Sealing Movement (Routledge). Some of her other publications include: “The Case for a Greenpeace Apology to Newfoundland and Labrador” (The Northern Review, 2021), “Re-establishing Legitimacy after Stigmatization: Greenpeace in the North American North” (Polar Record, 2020), Diplomacy and the Arctic Council (McGill-Queens University Press, 2019), International Disputes and Cultural Ideas in the Canadian Arctic: Arctic Sovereignty in the National Consciousness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). You can learn more about Dr. Burke on her Women in the Arctic and Antarctic profile and her Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark webpage.
Project title: Moral Legitimacy, Stigma and Environmental Activism in the 21st Century: Greenpeace in the Arctic
This research project will examine the implications of environmental activism on perceptions of an environmentalist non-governmental organisation’s moral legitimacy. Specifically, the project explores the experiences of Greenpeace and its challenges engaging Arctic/sub-Arctic audiences because of its role in the anti-sealing movement and the movement's violent legacy including deliberate cultural destruction and threats to murder children.