Corine Wood-Donnelly

I am an interdisciplinary researcher in social sciences. My research is at the intersection of political geography and international relations theory. My research is motivated by questions of sovereignty and how legitimacy in territorial order evolves over time. I am especially interested in issues of vertical sovereignty, resource sovereignty and the mechanisms used by states to perform and narrate their authority over different legal categories of space.

I am a SYLFF Research Fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden, with a research project on environmental governance in the Arctic maritime. My research agenda has three strong trends: theoretical approaches to sovereignty, maritime governance (both on safety and the environment) and applied resource issues including energy, water and sustainable development.

After an M.A. in International Relations, I completed my Ph.D. at Brunel University with a thesis titled “Constructing Arctic Sovereignty”. This project was inspired by the discussion surrounding sovereignty that emerged after the Russian expedition to the seabed at the North Pole in 2007.

After my PhD studies, I became a postdoc at the Scott Polar Research Institute with a project on the role of search and rescue in the Arctic. During this time, I also began working with other researchers on questions of resource development and justice, especially with energy and water. My research is currently on display at the Polar Museum in Cambridge, UK. This exhibit is called “Silent Messages”, partially inspired from the research in my book “Performing Arctic Sovereignty”.

At present I coordinate a research network on Arctic Justice. This is a dynamic project that holds great promise for the future of Arctic research and is active with reading groups, roundtables, workshops. We are currently planning for an edited volume on the topic.

If you’d like to follow my work or become involved with the Arctic Justice project, you can find me at:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4179-564X

Email: corine.wood-donnelly@ires.uu.se

Twitter: @polaricequeen

Personal website: www.corinewood-donnelly.com

Selected Publications:

Wood-Donnelly, Corine, (2019) Performing Arctic Sovereignty: Policy & Visual Narratives. Routledge, London. IBSN 9781138573598. https://bit.ly/2MzE5iQ.

Wood-Donnelly, Corine. (2019) Overlapping of Strategic Interests: The Northern Sea Route and the Polar Silk Road. BRI Research Blog. June. Available at: https://bit.ly/2T0vjMc.

Wood‐Donnelly, Corine. (2017), Messages on Arctic Policy: Effective Occupation in Postage Stamps of the United States, Canada, and Russia. Geographical Review, 107: 236-257. doi:10.1111/j.1931-0846.2016.12198.x.

Wood-Donnelly, Corine. (2016), From Whale to Crude Oil: Lessons from the North American Arctic. Energy Research & Social Science, 16:132-140. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2016.03.013.

Wood-Donnelly, Corine. (2013). The Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement: Text, Framing and Logics, The Yearbook of Polar Law Online, 5(1), 299-318. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22116427-91000127.