A new book co-written by Gates Cambridge Scholar Mia Bennett is out today and explores the future of the Arctic.
Unfrozen is an intelligent, bold embrace of the Arctic in the Anthropocene - a truly important contribution to the global discourse about the Arctic.
Martin Breum
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has co-written a book about the future of the Arctic which has been praised by the executive director of the Arctic Economic Council for bringing the Arctic to life as “a living, breathing mosaic of people, politics and planet”.
Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic by Mia Bennett and Klaus Dodds is published today [21st October].
It examines the state of the Arctic today, showing how the region is becoming a space of experimentation for everything from Indigenous governance to subsea technologies. It highlights how growing geopolitical competition is accompanying environmental disruption, with countries including Russia, China and the United States investing in the Arctic and consolidating their interests in strategic access, resource exploitation and alliance-building.
Mads Qvist Frederiksen, executive director of the Arctic Economic Council, says: “Few books manage to inform, provoke, and enthral in equal measure – but Unfrozen does just that. Bennett and Dodds bring the Arctic to life, not as a distant frontier, but as a living, breathing mosaic of people, politics, and planet. A rare achievement.”
Martin Breum, author of Cold Rush: The Astonishing True Story of the New Quest for the Polar North, adds: “Unfrozen is an intelligent, bold embrace of the Arctic in the Anthropocene – a truly important contribution to the global discourse about the Arctic. Its lucid analysis gracefully weaves the urgent threats of further militarisation and total climatic meltdown with the history of the region and the persistent endeavours of the Arctic peoples.”
Mia, who did her MPhil Polar Studies at the University of Cambridge [2012], is currently associate professor of geography at the University of Washington and founder and editor of the blog Cryopolitics. Previously, she taught in the Department of Geography and School of Modern Languages & Cultures (China Studies Programme) at the University of Hong Kong.
She will be in conversation with fellow Gates Cambridge Scholar Ben Weissenbach [2023], whose book North to the future: An offline adventure through the changing wilds of Alaska is just out, at a Gates Cambridge event on 12th November at 5.15-6.30pm. Sign up for members of the university community is here.
