Workshop on Respectful, Cooperative Research
Alaska EPSCoR research partners Cindy Hagwood and Justina Starzinksi-Hotch assisting with field data collection near Klukwan, Alaska.
The Alaska EPSCoR Interface of Change project is excited to announce that registration is open for a professional development workshop on Respectful, Cooperative Research:
What: Professional development workshop
For who: Faculty and students
When: Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 8 am – 5 pm AKST.
Where: Akasofu Building 501, UAF, In-person only
The deadline to apply is Friday, March 13, 2026, and registration is limited and on a first come first serve basis.
Limited travel support is available for those outside Fairbanks who would like to attend. Apply for travel support within
the registration form.
Contact Josie Sam with any questions about this event at josie.sam@alaska.edu.
Workshop Description:
A workshop for researchers and students to learn how to work respectfully and ethically with communities in Alaska and beyond, facilitated by Dr. Mike Koskey from the UAF Center for Cross-Cultural Studies. This will be a full day workshop consisting of presentations, group discussions, question sessions, break-out groups. Light breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Collaborative and cooperative research are central to the successful cross-cultural co-production of knowledge, and this rests on successful cross-cultural communication. This workshop focuses on the practicalities of research across cultures, and in particular in Indigenous communities. We will focus on the notions of extractive research, how to avoid this, the history of academia’s use and misuse of Indigenous knowledge, the role of worldviews surrounding research and notions of knowledge, and the application of these when utilizing research data for decision-making, including policy-making, and notions of authority and access. As a part of this effort, we will discuss how data is used, alongside considerations of its impact socially. Included will be a consideration of regulatory problems and issues for the people of a region impacted by research-driven policy decisions, and how more equitable approaches to such regulations can be devised and implemented. Finally, the workshop will focus on creating solutions to the challenges of respectful and cooperative research in ways that are sustainable and mutually beneficial.
Workshop Facilitator:
Dr. Mike Koskey
Center for Cross-Cultural Studies (retired)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Michael Koskey was an associate professor with UAF’s Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, which offers a MA and a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies. While serving in the military he received a BS in Anthropology and a BA in Political Science from the University of Central Florida, and afterward received an MS in Anthropology from Purdue University, and a PhD in Anthropology in 2003 from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Before joining the University of Alaska Fairbanks as faculty in 2007, Mike was a subsistence resource researcher with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Mike's research focuses on cross-cultural relations, cooperative research, oral history, traditional knowledge, ethnohistory, culture change, political economy, decolonization, Indigenous food sovereignty and security, resource use and allocation, and Indigenous cosmology/mythology. Mike has done fieldwork with Indigenous communities throughout Alaska, in central and eastern Siberia, and in Central America.