It was a privilege yesterday to lead another session of the fourth-year ‘Polar Seas’ module at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).  It was my third time teaching on this module, and my first since my appointment as a SAMS Honorary Fellow this academic year.

My lecture asked the same questions as last year: since Russia’s condemnable invasion of Ukraine, can we can we think of the Arctic as a coherent international region?  But also more hopefully: should Arctic politics begin with the states who colonised the region and still govern it, or with the peoples who call it home?

Many thanks to Dr Laura Hobbs for inviting me into her classroom!