Sreya Patri (she/her) is a junior in the School of Foreign Service studying Culture & Politics, with a concentration in Reconciling Environment & Gender. Patri is from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Throughout her academic career, she hopes to explore more deeply issues related to climate change and environmental justice–specifically through a gender-oriented lens. She also loves to spend time outside, whether that’s hiking, biking, or kayaking. On campus, she is a barista at Uncommon Grounds, currently trying to perfect her latte art skills. Patri is very excited to be apart of the 2024-2025 G+JI Fellowship Cohort and look forward to meeting everyone else!
Research Project: Reconciling Masculinities, Femininities, and Climate Justice within Indigenous Arctic Communities
As the ice breaks in the Arctic, so does the security of Indigenous peoples living in Canada and the United States. The Arctic’s richness in gas and minerals, revealed as the ice melts more each year, makes it the next potential frontier for industrial development. Regardless of future economic benefits, climate change negatively impacts Indigenous peoples living in the Arctic. Travel to hunting grounds and homes, finding employment, and caring for a family becomes increasingly difficult. The security of Indigenous communities is compounded by hegemonic masculinities and femininities in the Arctic region. Development in the Arctic attracts a male labor force, since Indigenous hegemonic masculinities are structured around men performing “work and being breadwinners.” Indigenous women are constrained by femininities of homemaking and child-rearing; concurrently, they also outnumber men in migration out of the Arctic in search of educational and labor opportunities. Existing literature recognizes that hegemonic masculinities and femininities exist in the Arctic. This research project seeks to further expand the academic understanding of such hegemonic masculinities and femininities by focusing on gender constructions in Indigenous Arctic communities–groups whose socializations have been studied only finitely. Additionally, knowledge in the field of environmental justice is limited to the effects of climate change on governments and non-Indigenous individuals. This project endeavors to widen the scope of analysis of the impact of climate change on individual’s security, employment, and health by highlighting Indigenous peoples’ stories. This research project ultimately aims to answer the question: to what extent are certain Indigenous gender roles threatened by and shaped by the challenges of melting ice & warming Arctic temperatures, governmental fracking activities, and the increasing jurisdiction of the Canadian and American governments over Indigenous Arctic territories?