Intrepid traveler meets challenges head on in the Arctic
Stanley fellowship makes academic adventure possible
By Kelli Andresen
Sonia Gunderson, 59, can tell you about traveling to Switzerland and India. She can regale you with stories of moving to Fairfield, Iowa, to train as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation or her work with the Institute for Research on Conscience and Human Development at Harvard. She can engage you in a conversation about studying music as an undergraduate at Temple University or what it was like growing up in Toledo, Ohio.
But her eyes really light up when she talks about the Arctic and the people she has come to know and love over the last six years.
Gunderson, a second-year masters student in professional journalism at the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication, “fell into” journalism after a 2000 trip to the Arctic, and she hasn’t stopped since. Her fascination with and love for the people of Igloolik, a small Inuit hamlet in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, has spurred two more trips to the region and provided the topic of her masters project: "Igloolik: One Inuit Community's Efforts to Blend Traditional and Contemporary Life."
Filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and Sonia Gunderson visit during a break in filming.
Sonia Gunderson
“In my project I’m looking at what is it about the location of the community, its geography and the other factors, that protected it from being destroyed by outside influences,” Gunderson said. “What is it about the leadership of the community that contributed to that. What are the initiatives they put into place? I'm endlessly curious about this particular community and what it can teach other indigenous communities in the Arctic and other parts of the world."
Judy Polumbaum, professor of journalism and mass communication, was one of the first professors to work with Gunderson on her writing and considers her to be an asset to the program.
“Sonia is intrepid, excited, a good listener and interviewer,” Polumbaum said. “She is interested in so many things, and when she’s interviewing people you know she’s interested in them. She’s just an amazing person.”
In January 2007, Gunderson will travel to the Arctic for the fourth time, with the help of a Stanley Fellowship for Graduate Student Research Abroad she received last spring through International Programs. While there she will conduct research and take part in the Return of the Sun festival, celebrating the first sunlight in the region after 24 hours of darkness. Although Gunderson admits this will be a physically challenging trip, she said she looks forward to the adventure.
“I feel like I can’t know the culture without experiencing the different times of the year there, because everything is so oriented to the weather,” she said.
What makes Gunderson’s trip to the Arctic even more amazing is that she has limited mobility because of a bout with polio when she was five years old. Although her handicap has not held her back in life, Gunderson said her mobility has declined in the last 10 years. To traverse through the snow and ice in Igloolik, she used spiked canes and grippers on the bottom of her boots. Every once in awhile, she’s offered a ride on the back of a snowmobile.
Despite the challenges, Gunderson said it’s all worth it.
"To learn about this great tradition of knowledge feels like an amazing privilege," she said. "I just go up to listen and absorb all I can. I hope, through my writing, I'll be able to share some of this cultural 'gold' with others."