Research Focus Area

Short Biography

I am a social anthropologist and senior researcher working on interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects in the Arctic and other environmental contexts. My work focuses on socio-environmental change, infrastructure, mobility, and socio-cultural dynamics in Arctic communities, with a particular interest in participatory and community-based approaches.

Most recently, I was part of the citizen science project Snow2School, a collaboration between schools in Uummannaq (Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland) and Eisenerz (Austria), climatologists from the University of Graz, and social anthropologists from the University of Vienna exploring changing snow conditions and their impacts on local lives and environments. The project built on the earlier interdisciplinary Snow2Rain project exploring the shift from snow to rain, broader environmental change, and their social implications in East Greenland.

I was also a Research Associate in the ERC Advanced Grant project InfraNorth, examining the social and political dynamics surrounding transport infrastructure and airport development in Kalaallit Nunaat.

Over the past 20 years, I have conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork primarily in Kalaallit Nunaat, complemented by research in the European Alps and the Philippines. I received my PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Aberdeen and my MA in Social, Cultural and Physical Anthropology from the University of Munich.

Selected Publications

For a selection of publications, see https://univie.academia.edu/SophieElixhauser