University of Alaska Anchorage

When it comes to stories, it’s not just what you say — it’s how you say it.

Local linguists are incorporating storytelling into their language revitalization efforts, giving elders a chance to create and tell stories in their native languages and imparting that knowledge onto language learners.

Joel Isaak, an artist and Dena'ina language professor with Kenai Peninsula College, spoke about that project at Tuesday’s Alaska Native Studies Symposia, put on by the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Kenai Peninsula College will be mostly online again this spring.

All University of Alaska Anchorage campuses, including KPC, will remain in Phase B — the second reopening phase in a scheme of five. In Phase B, some classes, like labs, are taught in person, and on-campus housing is open at reduced capacity. 

Chancellor Cathy Sandeen wrote an email to the UAA community last week that current and future infection patterns made sticking to Phase B the most advisable plan going forward. She said that releasing the decision now gives students, faculty and staff time to prepare for another mostly remote semester.

In a newsletter to KPC students sent out today, College Director Gary Turner reiterated that the decision applies to KPC.

Researchers from the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health are collaborating on a pilot study to better understand the psychological impacts of Alaska wildfires on residents.

They’re looking for adults who lived on the Kenai Peninsula or in Anchorage last summer, during the Swan Lake Fire, to participate in interviews and workshops about how that fire affected their mental health. The study is entitled, “Understanding and Supporting Mental Health and Well-Being in the Context of Intensifying Wildfires in Alaska.”

  A new exhibition by two University of Alaska Anchorage artists blend huge ceramic sculptures of Alaska wildlife with stark intaglio prints.

Alanna DeRocchi and Jonathan S. Green are the two artists in the “Of Stone” exhibit, which opens Thursday night. 

The first piece one sees upon entering the Kenai Fine Arts Center is of an emaciated polar bear, gaunt and drenched and struggling to get to its feet. It’s based on an image DeRocchi once saw.