2023 First Year SFI-IRC Pathway Project 'Exploring the Arctic Archive' PhD Scholar, University of Galway

2022-2023 Scandinavian Studies scholar, MPhil Polar Studies, University of Cambridge

Leah Palmer is a first year PhD student at the University of Galway, specialising in sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and Arctic studies. She is currently part of the 'Exploring the Arctic Archive' research project, funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish research council, a project that seeks to reexamine elements of the visual and literary culture of the 19th century Arctic, to replace the prevaling narratives of European 'exploration' into an empty Arctic with narratives of encounter between Indigenous peoples and Europeans.

Leah's current research interests are in early English-Inuit bilingual wordlists and dictionaries, where they are found, the differing roles they have played throughout time, and what they can tell us about relations between Indigenous peoples and European colonisers in the Arctic. Her other research interests include Indigenous Data Governance as it applies to archives and language data, as well as historical linguistics of Inuit languages.

Contact address: l.palmer2@universityofgalway.ie