February 20 2025

People of ICEBERG—Tahnee Prior and Christine Liang

Throughout the ICEBERG project, we will introduce the people working on the project. In this personnel introduction, Tahnee Prior from Women of the Arctic (WoA) and Christine Liang from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) introduce themselves and share what inspires them about ICEBERG.

Before Tahnee Prior and Christine Liang first met in-person in the field in Iceland, they knew that they had some things in common: they’re both Canadian and have a lot of experience working abroad.

But after spending nearly three weeks together in the field, in both Iceland and Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), they discovered they had even more in common: they shared the same birthday (February 20th!), the same shoe size, and the same passion for gender issues in academia.

And so, this time spent together working in community has not only blossomed into a friendship but a joint endeavor to examine the intersection of parenting and fieldwork, beginning with a survey (coming soon!).

Tahnee Prior. Photo: Apostolos Papakonstantinou.

Tahnee Prior, Women of the Arctic (WoA)

Tahnee Prior is a research lead and co-founder of Women of the Arctic (WoA), a non-profit association registered in Finland that aims to raise awareness of, support for, and maintain a focus on women’s and gender-related issues in the Arctic. Among many other things, Tahnee is interested in studying the nexus of gender-and-environment in the Arctic.

Within the ICEBERG project, Tahnee is working with colleagues across the project – both natural and social scientists – to better understand the gender dimension of human and climate-induced pollution in the project’s three field sites. This includes, among other things, working with colleagues to better understand the potential gendered impacts of various contaminants or to integrate a gender-dimension into the project’s participatory scenario-planning exercises. She also leads the team (WP4) focused on issues of knowledge co-production, co-creation, ethics, equity, citizen science and data management.

“I am working on the ICEBERG project because, even though gender equality is fundamental to sustainable development in the Arctic, many knowledge gaps persist including in climate and pollution research. A person’s gender can play a crucial role in how they relate to the natural environment, the activities they engage in, and their access to participate in the management of various natural resources. Given the pace of environmental change in the Arctic, including different types of pollution, it is important to acknowledge the centrality of gender in environmental observations, as well as in the impacts of and responses to these changes,” says Tahnee.

"I’m looking forward to working with others to broaden community engagement within our field sites to include more diverse voices and perspectives."

“In ICEBERG, I’m particularly excited to work with colleagues, like Christine, across different disciplines to learn more about the methods that they use and how they bring in a gender lens. At the same, I’m looking forward to working with others to broaden community engagement within our field sites to include more diverse voices and perspectives. In that sense, Christine and I are working together with the same goal in mind!”

“Over the course of the project I hope to learn more about the many technical aspects of pollution research – whether it’s soil sampling, marine litter deep dives, or laboratory-based contaminants research – and how social scientists, like myself, can work better together with our natural science colleagues and local communities to produce results that fill critical knowledge gaps,” Tahnee adds.

Christine Liang. Photo: Tahnee Prior.

Christine Yiqing Liang, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)

Christine is a researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany. Christine has an earth sciences background and used to research reef islands (islands that form on coral reefs), taking core samples and analyzing sediment to reconstruct the geological history of the islands. This research in tropical destinations is far away from both the ICEBERG project’s Arctic setting and what Christine now works on in the project.

Her current role in ICEBERG focuses on the Citizen Science framework and Community-Based Environmental Monitoring (CBEM) program. Citizen Science is an important component of the project because it is an inclusive scientific methodology that empowers the community by giving them the knowledge and resources to take environmental monitoring into their own hands. It also pushes the boundaries of research for scientists by expanding observation networks with the help of the community. This is one of the goals of the CBEM program, where we apply participatory mapping in Iceland and Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) to get a snapshot of polluted areas and help to identify hotspots.

The result is the ICEBERG uMap, a platform that provides a visualisation of observed changes and impacts due to pollution, overlaid on an interactive map that is accessible to citizens, with data provided by citizens.

"The ICEBERG project is so interdisciplinary and researchers are collecting many different types of knowledge, but something that ties everything together is our close collaboration with local communities."

As mentioned above, Christine took a major career pivot that stemmed from a personal passion of accessible education and community science. Christine started a microplastics citizen science project in Aotearoa New Zealand (where she used to live), which involved school groups (including those from lower decile schools) and multiple stakeholders such as waste management agencies, local councils, and community and Indigenous groups. Since moving to Germany two years ago, working in the ICEBERG project was a perfect fit, combining her experiences of citizen science, community science, and plastic pollution.

“The ICEBERG project is so interdisciplinary and researchers are collecting many different types of knowledge, but something that ties everything together is our close collaboration with local communities. One of the most interesting things about the project is the use of different technology-based citizen science methodologies, which include the ICEBERG uMap platform, and also time lapse cameras and drones. It was so exciting to see the interest of the community towards these citizen science activities, especially among youth and students,” says Christine.

Tahnee Prior & Christine Liang. Photo: Erik Kielsen.

Epilogue: Towards breaking the barriers that face women in academia

“As two female early career researchers, it can be intimidating to hear about the many barriers facing women in academia, such as the leaky pipeline (the gradual loss of women from academia) and the maternal wall bias (stereotypes faced by mothers in academia),” Tahnee and Christine say.

“Our hope is that – in addition to our primary work on the gender dimension of and citizen engagement in Arctic climate and pollution research – our work on the intersection of parenting and fieldwork can help us understand some of the challenges and strategies employed by parents (including some of our colleagues!) in the field, with the ultimate goal of enhancing support systems and resources for those navigating similar paths today and in the future.”