Tatiana Degai
Affiliate Assistant Professor
Affiliations
Arctic, Remote and Cold Territories Interdisciplinary Center (ARCTICenter), University of Northern Iowa, USA https://arctic.uni.edu/
Ph.D. (2016) University of Arizona (American Indian studies/Linguistics)
M.A. (2009) University of Alaska Fairbanks (Anthropology)
Language revitalization; Indigenous research methodologies, ethics, and community-engaged research; Ethnographies of the North-Pacific/Arctic; Indigenous visions on sustainability; Community and land-based learning; Creative arts and community well-being
Grants and Projects
Indigenous visions on sustainability
- Navigating New Arctic Track 1: Collaborative Research: ARC-NAV: Arctic Robust Communities-Navigating Adaptation to Variability (supported by NSF). With this project our research team is aiming to look at how communities in Kamchatka, Chukotka, and Alaska respond to the sea ice change and what we could learn from them in planning sustainability agenda. (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1928202)
- Indigenous Knowledge And Salmon Conservation In Kamchatka. This project is aimed to support the ongoing ethnographic research and educational work on the Nymylan and Itelmen Indigenous communities in Kamchatka who traditionally subsist on salmon that has been initiated in partnership with several U.S and Russian academic institutions and Indigenous communities in Kamchatka.
Community well-being
- AIVAN (Itelm. North) - Arctic Indigenous Virtual Arts Network: Sharing Indigenous Wisdom through Creative Arts. It is an informal platform that unites Indigenous artists throughout the Arctic and beyond to share Indigenous wisdom through creative arts. Our virtual circle is held on a weekly basis to exchange knowledge, traditional crafts techniques, and facilitate discussions on the place of Indigenous arts in the 21st century and in the community well-being.
- Tracking and Understanding Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic (COVITA) (supported by NSF) This research is focused on near real-time data collection (both statistical information and testimonies from the Arctic residents), sharing and analysis (https://arctic.uni.edu/arctic-covid-19). We hope this research will play a critical role in making important and up-to-date information available for all COVID-19 pandemic stakeholders and will enable informed decision support of immediate and long-term responses in the Arctic.
Ethnographies of the North-Pacific/Arctic
- Itelmens on the crossroads of the XX and XXI centuries. Together with Dr. David Koester (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Itelmen scholar and my grandmother Dr. Viktoria Petrasheva (Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography) we are working on a monograph of the Itelmens who lived on the crossroads of the XX and XXI centuries
- Mapping of traditional Itelmen knowledge to encourage land-based education, language revitalization and land rights of Itelmens in partnership with Dr. Brian Thom (UVic).
- Documenting Indigenous Knowledge through the Museum Objects, visit with Itelmen speakers from Kamchatka to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) and the Russian Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia
Language revitalization
- Collaborative Research: Integrated Audio/Video Documentation of Itelmen and Collaborative Research: Comprehensive Itelmen [itl] Dictionary (community liaison) with Jonathan Bobaljik (UConn), David Koester (UAF), Chikako Ono (Hokkai-Gakuen University), and Aleksander Volodin (Institute of Linguistics, St. Petersburg). https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1065038
Articles and book chapters:
Forthcoming - Indigenous Perspectives on Sustainability in the Arctic. In ASUS: Arctic Sustainability: Synthesis of Knowledge. Ed. Graibill J, Petrov. A.
Forthcoming - Degai, Tatiana, D. Koester, J. Bobaljik and Ch. Ono. Kŋaloz’a’n Ujeret’i’n Ŋetełkila’n - Keepers Of The Native Hearth: The Social Life Of The Itelmen Language – Documentation And Revitalization. In The Siberian World, to be published by Taylor and Francis, as part of their "Worlds" series edited by John Ziker, Vladimir Davydov, and Jenanne Furguson
2018 - Colombi, Benedict, Brian Thom and Tatiana Degai. Googling Indigenous Kamchatka: Mapping New Collaborations. Pp. 195-203 in Indigenous Justice: New Tools, Approaches, and Spaces. Edited by Hendry, J., Tatum, M.L., Jorgensen, M., and Howard-Wagner, D. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. https://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60645-7_13
2016 - Thom, Brian, Benedict Colombi and Tatiana Degai. Bringing Indigenous Kamchatka to Google Earth: Collaborative Digital Mapping with Itelmen Peoples. Sibirica. 15(3):1-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/sib.2016.150301 (original)
2014 - Koester, David, Viktoria Petrasheva, and Tatiana Degai. Religious Belief and Practice in Itelmen History: The Historical Efficacy of Ideological Frameworks." Sibirica 13.2: 5-27.
2013 – Petrasheva, Viktoria and Tatiana Degai. Religiosity in the remote Kamchatka: coming out of the oblivion. Istoria and Pedagogika Estestvoznaniya. 4: 52-56 [Православие в глубинке Камчатки: выход из забвения», История и педагогика естествознания, №4, 2013, стр. 52-56]
2010 – Koester, David, Viktoria Petrasheva, and Tatiana Degai Church, faith and contemporary life: Remembrances and stories from Tigil village. Recordings of 2006. Kamchatpress: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, Kamchatka.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
2019 - York, BurnSilver, Petrov, Degai (2019) Understanding Heterogeneity in Socio-climatic Risks: Adaptation Experiences in Arizona, USA and the Arctic, In Regional problems of the development of the Far East Russia and Arctic: Abstracts of the 1th National (AllRussian) science and practical conference «Moiseev’s Meetings», dedicated to the memory of the Kamchatka scientist R.S. Moiseev. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Publishing house Kamchatpress. pp. 252- 261 http://www.terrakamchatka.ru/conf/moiseev/conf_moiseev2019/%D0%9C%D0%BE%...
2019 - Petrasheva V.V., Degai T.S., Koester D. The Main Principles of Sustainability: Visions of Arctic Indigenous Peoples. In Regional problems of the development of the Far East Russia and Arctic: Abstracts of the 1th National (AllRussian) science and practical conference «Moiseev’s Meetings», dedicated to the memory of the Kamchatka scientist R.S. Moiseev. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Publishing house Kamchatpress. Pp. 204-207. http://www.terrakamchatka.ru/conf/moiseev/conf_moiseev2019/%D0%9C%D0%BE%...
2019 – Report from Indicator Practitioner Gathering. Co-editor with other participants. April 19-20, New York City: American Museum of Natural History. https://www.amnh.org/research/center-for-biodiversity-conservation/conve...
2019 – Spaces for Preservation of a Disappearing Languages: Itelmen Language in the XX and XXI Centuries, Kamchatka. Co-presented with Koester, Bobaljik at the International Symposium on the Interethnic and Language Relationship in Sociocultural Space of Russia: Past and Present, Saint-Petersburg, May 24-25.
2019 - Ethno-Ecological Education, Traditional Knowledge, Children, Kamchatka Salmon. Presented at the scientific and practical workshop on the Pacific Salmon in the world of human relationships: economic, social, environmental, historical, ethnic and cultural aspects, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Elizovo, May 21–22, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski: Kamchatpress.http://www.terrakamchatka.ru/conf/docl2019/%D0%9B%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%8...
2019 – Salmon Communities of Alaska and Kamchatka: Sustainability in Every Day Life. Co-Presented with Petrasheva at the Pacific Salmon in the world of human relationships: economic, social, environmental, historical, ethnic and cultural aspects the scientific and practical workshop, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Elizovo, May 21–22, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski: Kamchatpress. http://www.terrakamchatka.ru/conf/docl2019/%D0%9B%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%8...
2016 – co-author with V. Petrasheva, B. Colombi “Lesyaya Nymylan” (ethnographic notes). Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski: Kamchatpress.
2016 – Language Initiatives from Up to Bottom and Bottom Up - Report for the UN Expert Meeting on Indigenous Languages: Indigenous Languages: Preservation and Revitalization: Articles 13, 14 and 16 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (New York, 19 - 21 January 2016) https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/meetings-and-works...
2011 – “Me and My Salmon Friends: A programme of ethno-ecological education among the youth of rural Kamchatka in the Russian Far East strives to revive traditional indigenous knowledge in salmon fishing” in Samudra Report No.59, July
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ON ITELMEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
2020 - Go Fish in Itelmen. Language card game.
2016 – Degai, Tatiana and Victoria Petrasheva. Ethno-methodological children book for learning Itelmen language and culture “Games of Kutkh the Raven”.
2014 – DVD of Itelmen songs with video, subtitles and translation (Itelmen karaoke) https://vimeo.com/channels/990935/videos/rss
2014 – editor of the newspaper of Itelmens “Ӄэрвэԓхатном” #1, 2, 3.
2012 – educational poster in Itelmen “Kamchadal/Itelmen Calendar”
2012 – educational poster in Itelmen “Salmon parts”
2011 – Itelmen children activity book editor “Kamchatka – Mәzvin Sәmt”
2011 –Russian version of the UNESCO posters on traditional knowledge
2009 – poster publication on “Itelmen Sacred Sites” for Kovran school, Kamchatka
2008 - Editor of the 2nd edition of children book “Kamchatka – land of Salmon”
2007 – Editor of the children book “Kamchatka – land of Salmon”
2006 – Editor of the children book “Legends about Salmon”, Kamchatka