Photograph: Dome on Runit Island

Apart from a diverse and previously unknown fauna, explorations and receding ice caps have uncovered a sought-after abundance of natural resources in the Arctic region. Historian Elena Baldassarri argues that the exploitation of these resources not only constitutes a threat to the non-human world, but also to the Inuit people. This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “The Northwest Passage: Myth, Environment, and Resources.”

The Northwest Passage: Myth, Environment, and Resources

This exhibition tells the story of the Northwest Passage from the pursuit of a myth to the exploitation of natural resources. Historian Elena Baldassarri takes readers on a multimedia tour of the Arctic, featuring interactive maps, photographs, videos, and interviews with experts, scholars, and elders of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada.

Elena Baldassarri

About the author

Baldassarri, Elena

Roma Tre University, Italy

Elena Baldassarri is an Assistant Professor in North American History at the Humanistic Department of Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy. Her research interests focus on the history of Canada and the United States, and the relationship between cultural and social rights in Canada. Her most recent publications cover US environmental policy, Canada’s sovereignty over the lands and waters of the Arctic. In past she has obtained a Canada Grant (2012) at the John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien, Freie Universität Berlin, a Faculty Research Grants/Bourses de recherche International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) (2007), and a Travel Grant from the Italian Association for Canadian Studies (AISC) (2006). She is the author of several articles and books including Canada e Quebec: Un problema di identità nazionale (1947–70) [Canada and Quebec: a problem of national identity]. Roma: Viella, 2009, and has edited Percorsi migratori e accoglienza fra storia e politiche di gestione [Migration routes and migrant reception: history and policies], edited with Pia G. Celozzi Baldelli. Roma: Aracne, 2009, and La Guerra Fredda nella satira politica Est/Ovest [Cold War and political satire] edited with Pia G. Celozzi Baldelli. Roma: Aracne, 2010.

Browse the exhibition

The Northwest Passage as a Matter of National Security

Once an environment in which the notion of nations was unheard of, the Arctic region is now a disputed space among superpowers. This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “The Northwest Passage: Myth, Environment, and Resources”—written and curated by historian Elena Baldassarri.

The Northwest Passage: Myth, Environment, and Resources

This exhibition tells the story of the Northwest Passage from the pursuit of a myth to the exploitation of natural resources. Historian Elena Baldassarri takes readers on a multimedia tour of the Arctic, featuring interactive maps, photographs, videos, and interviews with experts, scholars, and elders of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada.

Elena Baldassarri

About the author

Baldassarri, Elena

Roma Tre University, Italy

Elena Baldassarri is an Assistant Professor in North American History at the Humanistic Department of Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy. Her research interests focus on the history of Canada and the United States, and the relationship between cultural and social rights in Canada. Her most recent publications cover US environmental policy, Canada’s sovereignty over the lands and waters of the Arctic. In past she has obtained a Canada Grant (2012) at the John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien, Freie Universität Berlin, a Faculty Research Grants/Bourses de recherche International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS) (2007), and a Travel Grant from the Italian Association for Canadian Studies (AISC) (2006). She is the author of several articles and books including Canada e Quebec: Un problema di identità nazionale (1947–70) [Canada and Quebec: a problem of national identity]. Roma: Viella, 2009, and has edited Percorsi migratori e accoglienza fra storia e politiche di gestione [Migration routes and migrant reception: history and policies], edited with Pia G. Celozzi Baldelli. Roma: Aracne, 2009, and La Guerra Fredda nella satira politica Est/Ovest [Cold War and political satire] edited with Pia G. Celozzi Baldelli. Roma: Aracne, 2010.