Danita Catherine Burke, Research Fellow
Center for War Studies, Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark
Dr. Burke is a Research Fellow at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark and the founder of the Women in the Arctic and Antarctic, which is a networking and information sharing platform that aims to help promote women doing research and representation in/on the Arctic, Antarctic and Circumpolar North.
Dr. Burke completed a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University, UK with graduate and undergraduate degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She was born and raised in rural Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Her research covers topics such as the evolution of Canada’s national relationship with the ideas of the Arctic and North; Arctic and northern regional cooperation (particularly the Arctic Council), security and diplomacy; the role(s) and influence(s) of environmental organizations and animal rights groups in global politics; Indigenous rights and self-governance; and the impact of environmental and animal rights activism on rural and coastal peoples in the Circumpolar North. Dr. Burke’s research includes publications such as: Cultural Violence, Stigma and the Legacy of the Anti-Sealing Movement (Routledge); WWF and Arctic environmentalism: Conservationism and the ENGO in the Circumpolar North (Manchester University Press); Diplomacy and the Arctic Council (McGill-Queens University Press); and International Disputes and Cultural Ideas in the Canadian Arctic (Palgrave Macmillan).
Dr. Burke’s research has been supported by a number of funders, including: Nordic Council of Ministers (Nordic Arctic Programme), Northern Scholars Visiting Research Fellowship (at the University of Edinburgh), the J.R. Smallwood Foundation, Horizon 2020 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship), and the Carlsberg Foundation.
Currently, Dr. Burke is the principal investigator of the project Seals, Stigma and Survival: Finding Solutions to the EU Stigmatization of Seal Hunting supported by the Nordic Arctic Programme and hosted at the SDU Department of Political Science and Public Management and the Center for War Studies. The project aims to work to amplify local stakeholders and rightsholders’ voices in the Circumpolar North impacted by the anti-sealing activism and the EU seal product import ban to explore solutions to the stigma associated with seal products, seal hunting and sealers in the EU. You can learn more about the project, research team and developments through the project website (www.survivingsealingstigma.com) and social media (X: @SealsandStigma / BlueSky: @sealsandsurvival.bsky.social).
