Told as a refutation of the idea that climate change is so apocalyptic all is hopeless, this talk looks to the history of Indigenous Chukchi people amid the rise and fall of the Soviet Union in the Arctic to look for lessons in how societies survive massive transitions—and the role of local knowledge, interspecies relationships, and community in doing so.

Bathsheba Demuth is Dean's Associate Professor of History and Environment and Society at Brown University, and the author FLOATING COAST: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. Dr. Demuth is an environmental historian, specializing in the lands and seas of the Russian and North American Arctic. Her interest in northern environments and cultures began when she was 18 and moved north of the Arctic Circle in the Yukon. For over two years, Dr. Demuth mushed huskies, hunted caribou, fished for salmon, tracked bears, and otherwise learned to survive in the taiga and tundra. In the years since, she has lived in and studied Arctic communities across Eurasia and North America. From the archive to the dog sled, she is interested in the how the histories of people, ideas, places, and non-human species intersect.