I am a senior research fellow at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark. I am a member of the SDU Arctic steering committee, working with colleagues to help highlight and promote the Polar-focused scholarship and activities at the University of Southern Denmark. My research covers themes such as Arctic/northern diplomacy, security and history; cultural violence and stigma; and environmental and animal rights activism and legacy in the Circumpolar North. Presently I am the principal investigator for the Nordic Arctic Programme supported project Seals, Stigma and Survival: Finding Solutions to the EU Stigmatization of Seal Hunting.
From 2022-2023 I was a Northern Scholars Research Fellowship associated with the University of Edinburgh working on Greenpeace and its 21st century efforts in the Arctic and Circumpolar North.
My research has been funded by the: Nordic Arctic Programme/Nordic Council in Greenland (2025-2028); Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (2022-2023); J.R. Smallwood Foundation for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies (2020-2022); EU Horizon 2020 (2018-2020); Carlsberg Foundation (2016-2018); Rothermere Foundation (2011-2015); Social Science and Humanities Research Council (2010-2011). I have a PhD from the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK and undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
If you would like to learn more about my work, or would like to contact me, you can find me on X/Twitter @DanitaBurke1, BlueSky @danitaburke.bsky.social or you can contact me by email (burke@sam.sdu.dk).
For additional information on my research, please visit my:
Steering Committee profile, SDU Arctic
Academia.edu profile page
Select List of Publications:
Burke, Danita Catherine (2023). Cultural Violence, Stigma and the Legacy of the Anti-Sealing Movement. London: Routledge. (Open access: Introduction, Chapter 2 and Chapter 4) https://www.routledge.com/Cultural-Violence-Stigma-and-the-Legacy-of-the-Anti-Sealing-Movement/Burke/p/book/9781032397900.
Burke, Danita Catherine (2022). WWF and Arctic Environmentalism: Conservationism and the ENGO in the Circumpolar North. Manchester University Press. https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526153821/wwf-and-arctic-environmentalism/.
Burke, Danita Catherine (2021). “The Case for a Greenpeace Apology to Newfoundland and Labrador.” The Northern Review (Open Access). https://doi.org/10.22584/nr51.2021.002.
Burke, Danita Catherine. (2020) “Re-establishing Legitimacy after Stigmatization: Greenpeace in the North American North.” Polar Record 56(e26): 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247420000285
Burke, Danita Catherine. (2019) Diplomacy and the Arctic Council. Montreal and Kingston. McGill-Queens University Press. https://www.mqup.ca/diplomacy-and-the-arctic-council-products-9780773559196.php.
Burke, Danita Catherine. (2018) International Disputes and Cultural Ideas in the Canadian Arctic: Arctic Sovereignty in the National Consciousness. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319619163.
Select List of Speaking Engagements:
Work-in-Progress Presentation: “Greenpeace in the Arctic: Navigating Moral Legitimacy, Nonviolence and the Legacy of the Anti-Sealing Movement”, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (April 20th, 2023) (https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/event/dr-danita-burke-greenpeace-arctic-navigating-moral-legitimacy-nonviolence-and-legacy-anti).
Book Launch: “WWF and Arctic Environmentalism: Conservationism and the ENGO in the Circumpolar North”, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (October 26th, 2022) (https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/event/book-launch-wwf-and-arctic-environmentalism-conservationism-and-engo-circumpolar-north-dr)
Radio interview with CBC The Broadcast with Jane Adey (November 11, 2021) to follow-up on my interview and research calling on Greenpeace to apologize to Newfoundland and Labrador sealers, Indigenous peoples, sealing communities and families for inflicting forms of violence on rural and isolated sealers and sealing cultures in the 1970s-1980s (https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-122-the-broadcast/clip/15878064-still-waiting-apology-greenpeace)
Radio interview with CBC The Broadcast with Jane Adey (May 27, 2021) to discuss the impact of economic, cultural and psychological violence on coastal communities in during the anti-sealing movement (https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-122/clip/15845723)
Arctic Institute of North America (AINA), “Advancing Knowledge for a Changing North” interview. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc4GTchSlq0)
(Recorded 15 January 2021; Published 18 February 2021)
Women in the Arctic and Antarctic 