I am from the Republic of Tyva, Siberia. I completed my undergraduate education at Irkutsk State Linguistic University (Russia) in English as a Foreign Language and French in 1995. Afterward, I taught English at Tuvan State University. Subsequently, I decided to change my field of study and research to cultural anthropology. In pursuit of my studies, I received an award from the Fulbright Program that gave me an opportunity to study cultural anthropology and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona in 2006/07.
I have always wanted to study Tyvan nomadic groups because they are understudied, and my aim was to document their lifestyles. I received my M.A. degree in anthropology at Boise State University in the US in 2009. My research was focused on property relations among the nomadic groups in the central and western parts of the Republic of Tyva. I continued my education and I graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with Ph.D. degree in 2018.
My PhD research focused on human-animal relations among Tozhu reindeer herder-hunters in the northern part of the Republic of Tyva. In October of 2019, I will begin a postdoc position in Soviet Antarctic History project at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Built Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. The main goal of the project is to investigate how certain international agreements concerning marine resources and minerals in Antarctica were developed from the 1960s through to the 1990s.
My research interests include multispecies ethnography, animal studies, domestication, reindeer herding, hunting, the Republic of Tyva, Indigenous peoples of Siberia, and Siberian Studies. As a Council member of APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists), I am involved in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Indigenous Involvement project groups. I am passionate about helping to promote inclusiveness in global polar-focused communities and I am mentoring Indigenous students and other early career researchers in my community.
If you are interested in networking, feel free to get in touch. I can be reach by email: tuvataiga20@gmail.com
My publications include:
Arakchaa. T. (in progress) The Wolf-Pack Approach: Tozhu Hunting Strategies in the Siberian Taiga. In Multi-Species Mountain Households: Sentient Ecology from the Siberia-Mongolia Nexus. Alex Oehler and Anna Varfolomeeva, eds. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Arakchaa, T. (2014) The Effects of Climate Change on the Traditional Economy of the Tozhu Reindeer Herders in Southern Siberia. Journal of Alaska Anthropological Association 12(2):61-73.
Purzycki B. G., and Arakchaa, T. (2013) Ritual Behavior and Trust in the Tyva Republic. Cultural Anthropology 54(3):381-388
Women in the Arctic and Antarctic 