Partnered Internships
The Institute of Arctic Studies offers internship opportunities through institutions, organizations, and trusted partners. These opportunities are updated depending on availability, or as new partnered internships become available.
Please read through the General Internship Information before applying.
ILLU Art and Science Hub in Greenland
The University of Bergen has partnered with the ClimateNarratives project and Avannaata Kommunia to create the ILLU Art and Science Hub in Illulissat, Greenland. Interns will assist in organizing dissemination events and community outreach initiatives, while being able to network with artists and scientists from diverse backgrounds.
This internship is available for the Spring, Summer, and Fall terms. Deadlines will be updated periodically here.
Ethical Guidelines for Participation
ILLU collaborators, residents, and interns are expected to adhere to a set of ethical guidelines during their stay. From the ILLU Instruction Manual:
Conducting research with the local communities of Greenland requires an appreciation of their culture, history, and perspectives. The following guidelines can help ensure that your research is culturally responsive and ethical:
Obtain informed consent: Prior to starting your research, it is important to gain the informed consent of the people you plan to work with. This means that they have a clear understanding of the purpose and scope of your research and have voluntarily agreed to participate.
Be culturally sensitive: Be conscious of cultural differences and the local unique history and experiences. Research should not reinforce stereotypes or colonial attitudes.
Foster open communication: Foster open communication and maintain transparent and honest relationships with the communities you work with. Listen to their perspectives, and incorporate their feedback and suggestions into your research process.
Respect sacred and sensitive information: Handle sacred or sensitive information with respect, and do not disclose or use it without the permission.
Ensure data privacy and security: Take steps to protect the personal data and information collected during your research and ensure its security.
Work with community partners: Consider collaborating with community partners, such as local organizations, to facilitate your research and ensure its cultural responsiveness.
Give back to the community: Consider ways to give back to the community, such as sharing your research findings with them or supporting community development initiatives.
Acknowledge and respect traditional knowledge: Acknowledge and respect the traditional knowledge and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples of Greenland, and integrate them into your research where appropriate.
Dartmouth-McGill Arctic Research
The Dartmouth-McGill partnered internship is a continuously-evolving opportunity that offers new and exciting insights into Arctic research in a structured setting. Students have the opportunity to contribute to an Arctic science study, regardless of background or experience, with researchers at Dartmouth College and McGill University in Canada.
About the Current Project
Stories from Indigenous communities worldwide illustrate the centrality of water to Indigenous wellbeing and culture. “For Indigenous Peoples, water provides lifeways, subsistence, and has undeniable spiritual significance,” described Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz in an end-of-mission statement. This project seeks to demonstrate how Indigenous youth’s knowledge, creativity, and innovation can play a vital role in responding to water justice and adverse mental health outcomes.
At this stage of the project, the internship would focus on researching Arctic Indigenous languages and ontologies in relation to water and how they manifest in Indigenous conceptualisations of justice, Indigenous law and forms of governance. Arctic Indigenous languages and language renaissances are powerful tools of resilience, justice, identity, self-determination, and of healing intergenerational trauma. During the internship, the student would research Indigenous languages and ontologies of the Arctic, and begin to gather words and concepts from those languages related to water. Through this effort, we will collaboratively work to develop a “dictionary” of water, water justice, and water governance terms from Arctic Indigenous languages. The internship will aim to share the findings of this work through a peer-reviewed academic journal article as well as other publications or presentations of interest to the project and internship.
Dartmouth to Greenland
Students looking for an immersive study experience in Greenland can take a leave term to audit classes at Ilisimatusarfik (the University of Greenland). Our Dartmouth-Greenland off-term opportunity remains at the heart of our commitment to expanding mutual understanding between Dartmouth and Greenland.
Dartmouth-University of Alaska Southeast: Engaging Indigenous Knowledge in Alaska Marine Policy Making
Climate change is causing shifts and variability in social-ecological systems. To prepare, federal and state leaders have directed policy makers to consider Indigenous knowledge in their decision making. However, the steps policy makers should take to engage Indigenous knowledge remain unclear.
To fill this gap, this project seeks to answer this question: How do existing federal and state regulatory processes inhibit, or facilitate, policy makers’ abilities to use Indigenous knowledge to inform their decision making?
This internship is available throughout the whole academic year.
Project Overview
To answer the question, the project team will be interviewing current and former marine policy makers to understand their perspectives on processes that facilitate, or inhibit, their abilities to engage Indigenous knowledge in decision making. The team will also examine how policy makers, Tribal representatives, and other stakeholders discuss Indigenous Knowledge in public policy making meetings.
The selected intern will work with the project team to analyze interviews using qualitative coding software. Students will be invited to participate in project publications and in presentations of project results to policy makers and Alaska Native organizations.
Housing arrangements may be available through the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. Juneau is Alaska’s capital city and a central hub for policy making and research.
Dartmouth-IACN Internship
The Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network (IACN) has partnered with the Institute of Arctic Studies to support students interested in networking in the Arctic, building connections through partnered organizations, and facilitating collaborative projects between different groups.
General Internship Information
The below applies to all of the offered partnered internships.
DURATION: 8-10 weeks
ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible for funding, you must have an “L term” (Leave Term) status with the College.
ITEMS TO SUBMIT WITH YOUR ONLINE APPLICATION
You are required to submit a resume/CV and unofficial transcript with your application at the time of submission. These are uploaded directly into the application.
Budget
- Standard funding available for travel-based internships is $5,500. If expenses are higher than the standard award amount please specify and articulate where additional funds are needed. Consideration will be given on a case-by-case basis. Please provide detail in the budget outline.
Resume or CV
- Please submit a current resume or CV.
Supervisor Statement
- Required for other internships, but not for partnered internships. Applicants must ask their host organizations to complete the Supervisor Statement, which verifies your offer of internship and includes a description of the work to be completed.
Recommendation(s)
Requests for recommendations are made directly through the application link. Please begin your application and use the links provided to invite recommenders to complete an online form
- One recommendation must come from a Dartmouth faculty member
- A second recommendation is suggested, but not required. Secondary recommendations can come from previous employers, advisors, staff, or an additional faculty member.
Writing Sample:
- This should be a research paper, opinion piece, newsletter article, narrative paper, blog post or creative essay that demonstrates your writing/research skills. Sample should be 1-3 pages in length.
Applications missing the above elements will be considered incomplete.
For more information on Dartmouth’s Travel Safety Policy, Travel Registry, and Exception process, please visit the Global Dartmouth website here.
Post-Travel Requirements
Returning interns agree to participate in workshops or informational sessions related to internships. Following completion of the internship, students are required to submit a 3-5 page report describing not only the kind of work done, but also something about the organizational host, the people with whom the intern worked, and how the experience was meaningful.
How to Apply
Spring ’26 internships are due February 4, 2026 at 11:59 PM.
The deadline for Summer ’26 internships is April 29, 2026 at 11:59 PM.
The application link will take you to a generic Arctic Partnered Internships portal. Please indicate whichever internship you’re applying for within the application.
Questions?
Reach out to Sanaa Siddiqi
(Banner photo: Arctic Innovation Scholar, Aidan Silvestro ’27)