Patricia Gaviria

How might we better understand the use and limits of participatory methods, including foresight scenarios, in Arctic communities? In this informal professional gathering Annabel Rixen and Patricia Gaviria will outline their recent work. Invited participants include people from Nunavut, Strategic Foresight & Innovation students and alumni, and interested researchers.

Annabel Rixen will share participatory work on mining impacts in Baker Lake, Nunavut that engages Canadian Indigenous rights as well as the integration of scientific and traditional knowledge. It forms part of a comparative study with Nunavik led by Sylvie Blangy of the French National Centre of Scientific Research. Annabel’s use of foresight includes future scenarios and “sustainable development” options. Annabel is an MA candidate in Environmental Management at the Paris Institute for Life, Food & Environmental Sciences. Her work is informed by previous experiences in Canadian social-environmental policy (Intern, BC Legislative Assembly); global land rights and food justice (Oxfam Germany); as well as climate change impacts and adaptations (Proyecto EcoAdapt, Argentina).

Patricia Gaviria will present work examining how the right to Inuit self-determination is being taken up by postsecondary education systems in Nunavut and Greenland. Her research brings new insight on how contemporary indigenous knowledge develop at the intersection of political and economic shifts and social imperatives. Patricia is a post-doctorial researcher in Higher Education at OISE, University of Toronto, focusing on Indigenous Knowledge Production and Indigenous Peoples rights. Patricia has over 15 years of experience in education and sustainable development policy and programming. Her experience has given her the opportunity to work with rural and urban communities in different countries including Canada, El Salvador, Namibia, Rwanda, Mauritania, Argentina, Mongolia, Colombia, and Ecuador.