Davin Holen

Focus

As the Alaska Sea Grant Coastal Community Resilience Specialist, Davin Holen is dedicated to providing expertise, research, and extension services that enhance the culture and well-being of coastal communities across Alaska. Davin works collaboratively with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at UAF’s International Arctic Research Center. As a Sea Grant liaison, Davin is supported by and draws on resources from NOAA and the National Sea Grant program. Community resilience activities are highlighted on the Adapt Alaska website hosted by Alaska Sea Grant.

Expertise

Davin facilitates workshops and other activities related to coastal resilience addressing monitoring, mitigation, and adaptation to local stressors from climatic and ocean changes. Before joining Alaska Sea Grant, Davin spent 15 years at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, conducting social-science research and managing the subsistence program in Southern Alaska. Davin works in rural communities from the Arctic to Southeast Alaska, providing data and decision support tools for communities to make informed decisions about adapting to future climate and environmental scenarios. Davin has also been an adjunct professor of anthropology since 2003 at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), where he continues to teach as an assistant professor. Davin, a lifelong Alaskan from the Susitna Valley, graduated from UAA with a degree in history, then spent two years in Mali, West Africa, conducting natural resource management development work in the Peace Corps. Davin next returned to UAA to earn an M.A. in applied cultural anthropology, the first graduate of this degree program. Davin received a Ph.D. in anthropology from UAF in 2017. His dissertation, as well as current work, examines societal and economic factors intertwined with climatic and environmental changes influencing subsistence economies important for culture in Alaskan communities.

Service

• National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Math, Gulf Health and Resilience Board, member
• Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, Scientific Advisory Committee, chair
• North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, Bering Sea Fishery Ecosystem Plan Team, member
• Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund Statewide Science Panel, member

Affiliations

• Collaborative Faculty, Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Anchorage
• International Arctic Social Sciences Association
• Society for Applied Anthropology, fellow
• Alaska Anthropological Association

Current Project Websites

• Adapt Alaska adaptalaska.org
• Pursuing Opportunities for Long-Term Arctic Resilience for Infrastructure and Society arcticpolaris.org
• People on the Move in a Changing Climate www.pemocc.org

Selected publications

• (Forthcoming) Iulie Aslaksen, Gérard Duhaime, Solveig Glomsrød, Davin Holen, Karen Everett, Sébastien Lévesque, Birger Poppel, MarieKathrine Poppel, Ellen Inga Turi, Wilbert van Rooij. Socio-economic conditions of the circumpolar Arctic: The ECONOR approach as background for studies of everyday life In Transitions in everyday life in the Arctic. eds. A.A. Espíritu, M. Tennberg, and H. Lempinen. Routledge Research in Polar Regions, ed. By T. Heleniak.
• (Forthcoming) Wilson Sacoby, Helen Chang, Davin Holen, Erin Ling, Daphne Pee, and Andrew Lazur. An introduction to environmental justice and extension programs engaging vulnerable communities In Striving for grassroots engagement: Community education, social justice, cultural competence, and the role of cooperative extension. Michigan State University Press.
• Inuit Circumpolar Council, Gwich’in Council International, Davin Holen (coordinating author), Hannah L. Harrison, David Natcher, Ryan Macdonald, Alexander Pilyasov, Valeriy Kibenko, Ravdna Biret Marja E. Sara, Ellen Inga Turi, Risten MN Buljo, Anders Oskal, Svein Disch Mathiesen, Iulie Aslaksen, MarieKathrine Poppel, Birger Poppel and Susanna Gartler. Interdependency of subsistence and market economies in the Arctic. In The economy of the North (ECONOR IV). Solveig Glomsrød, Gérard Duhaime, and Iulie Aslaksen, eds. Arctic Council Secretariat.
• Tobias Schwoerer, Jennifer Schmidt, Davin Holen. Predicting the food-energy nexus of wild food systems: Informing energy transitions for isolated indigenous communities. Ecological Economics 176 (2020) 106712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106712
• Solveig Glomsrød, Birger Poppel, Lars Lindholt, Gérard Duhaime, Sébastien Lévesque, Davin Holen, and Iulie Aslaksen. Arctic Economies Between Geopolitical Tensions and Provision of Livelihoods: Insights from the ECONOR Approach. In Handbook on Geopolitics and Security in the Arctic. J. Weber, ed. Springer Nature, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45005-2_13
• 2017. Holen, Davin, Drew Gerkey, Even Høydahl, David Natcher, Martin Reinhardt Nielsen, Birger Poppel, Paul Inge Severeide, Hunter T. Snyder, Mary Stapleton, Ellen Inga Turi, and Iulie Aslaksen. Interdependency of subsistence and market economies in the Arctic. In: The Economy of the North 2015 (ECONOR III). Solveig Glomsrod, Gérard Duhaime, and Iulie Aslaksen, eds. Oslo. Statistics Norway.
• Holen, Davin. 2014. Fishing for community and culture: The value of fisheries in rural Alaska. Polar Record 50:403–413. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247414000205.
• Holen, Davin. 2011. “We all drink this water”: The contemporary context of salmon fishing in Southwest Alaska. In: D. Michelle, F. Levesque, and J. Ferguson (eds.), Humanizing security in the Arctic. Canadian Circumpolar Institute, Edmonton, pp. 191–208.
• Holen, Davin. 2009. A resilient subsistence salmon fishery in Southwest Alaska: A case study of fish camps in Nondalton. Journal of Northern Studies 2:99–113.
• Holen, Davin L.. 2004. The Atna' and the political ecology of the Copper River fishery, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 4(1):58–70.

Hobbies

The outdoors is my favorite gym, and Anchorage has some of the best trails anywhere for skiing and running. I grew up skiing, hiking, and trail running in the woods of the Susitna Valley. I continue to do these activities with my family, and recently built a log cabin near Talkeetna so we can enjoy outdoor activities.