November 3 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

This week’s University of Victoria Community Based Research Lab Community Conversations meeting is with Dr. Olaf Kuhlke. He is Professor and Chair of Creative Entrepreneurship at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. 

Olaf is also a consultant and entrepreneur, working with BIPOC organizations across North America to implement creative entrepreneurship training programs for community members, and provides workshops on startups, workplace culture, mental health, and trauma-informed entrepreneurship. 

Join us to hear from Dr. Olaf Kuhlke discussing two case studies of ongoing and planned research that might form the foundation for future work on what he will call “Arctic climate entrepreneurship.”

First, his talk outlines a planned project in Nunavut, Northern Manitoba and Alaska, addressing supply chains and their relationship to food (in)security in these regions. This project focuses on the tenuous relationship between Nunavut and Southern Canada regarding food systems development. It seeks to examine the flows and needs of food supplies to the North while simultaneously evaluating the possibilities and limits of local production.

Second, His presentation will draw on his ongoing research in Alaska and showcase how an understanding of permafrost thaw and its impact on cultural and economic infrastructure can provide a foundation for entrepreneurship research and development in mitigation and adaptation measures, along with pushing the boundaries of the 3-D visualization of climate change. 

The first case study serves as a way to create a theoretical framework for Arctic climate entrepreneurship based on the concept of unlimited growth in a limited system; the second case study seeks to create an applied approach that outlines the various practical measures that can be put into place to create long-term solutions for adaptation and mitigation.