I am an environmental anthropologist and archaeologist of the contemporary who examines how imperialism and settler colonialism are refused, resisted and circumvented in the circumpolar north by Nunatsiavummiut. My current research foregrounds Inuit self-determination at the intersection of Cold War radar bases and climate change. I use archaeological, sociocultural, historical and multi-media methodologies to engage with northern materialities—like sea ice or "thick" weather—that are usually absent from or de-politicized in the archaeological record. My work has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation and the Nunatsiavut Government, amongst others. I am a white settler scholar who has been working in Hopedale, Nunatsiavut since 2017 with advisory from the Hopedale Inuit Community Government and the Agvituk Historical Society, as well as with community members not typically consulted in anthropological work. 

 

I am currently a William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow in the Canada Program at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and a Research Affiliate of the Native American Program. At Harvard, I am writing a manuscript entitled Against Cryo Nullius: Icy Materialities and Nunatsiavummiut Refusal of the Settler State. In my manuscript, I use an analytic I have developed called cryo nullius—where icy scapes are treated as spectacular, vast, and un-peopled—to show how recent forms of colonialism and imperialism manifest in the sub-Arctic. I demonstrate how Inuit reject this discursive colonial formation of their sovereign land, and outline the cultural, material and political specificity of icescapes in Nunatsiavut.

 

I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2024. I have been the instructor-of-record or taught and mentored students at the University of Chicago, Montclair State University, Raritan Valley Community College, and in Nunatsiavut. My pedagogy is rooted in inclusivity and collaboration, and my courses are grounded by semester-long projects which give students the opportunity to take analytical tools from the classroom to explore problems of social and environmental injustice in the real world.​

 

Recently, I have done consulting work for the Nunatsiavut Government, and worked on projects in northern New Jersey examining Black and Indigenous histories in contemporary suburban landscapes. I am always excited to be contacted about participation in related work, particularly projects where archaeological or anthropological methodologies can intersect with or serve Indigenous sovereignty. My CV is available upon request.

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You can reach me at egilheany (at) fas.harvard.edu