Karla Jessen Williamson facts for kids

Karla Jessen Williamson was born in 1954 in Appamiut, a town near Maniitsoq in Greenland. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. She is a professor of education at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Karla made history as the first woman and the first Inuk person to be the executive director of the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA). She speaks Danish, English, and Greenlandic. She is a teacher and researcher who studies how different cultures interact. She also researches how to fight racism and how Indigenous people understand knowledge.

Karla's Early Life and Education

Karla Jessen Williamson is from the Kalaallit people of Greenland. She went to primary school in Greenland. She finished high school in Denmark. Later, she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Education in 1987. She studied at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

She also got her Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her Ph.D. research looked at how men and women related to each other. This was in Greenland's Inuit communities after colonial times. Before all this, she also completed her teacher training in Nuuk, Greenland.

Karla's Career and Research

Karla's research includes studying Inuit childbearing and how gender roles changed in Greenland. She taught for 16 years at the University of Saskatchewan. She worked in a program focused on education for Indigenous and Northern communities. In 2000, she moved to the AINA. She is also a Senior Researcher with the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. This group represents Inuit people in Canada.

Because of her work, Karla led a big project for the International Polar Year (IPY) from 2007 to 2008. This project was called "Arctic Resiliency and Diversity: Community Response to Change." She worked with the Inuit Circumpolar Conference on this. Karla often talks about the importance of traditional Inuit masking. She believes it helps Inuit people understand gender equality. It also helps them connect with their ancestors, animals, and the environment. She has also been an editor for the Journal of Indigenous Studies.

Karla has served on many important committees. These include groups for the Minister of Natural Resources and the Canadian Council on Learning. She also worked with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. In 2017, she was appointed to the Greenland Commission for Reconciliation. This group works to heal past harms.

Karla's Personal Life

Karla Jessen Williamson married Robert Gordon Williamson. He was an anthropologist and a professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He passed away in 2012. They have two children together. Karla lives near Saskatoon, Canada. She is an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan. Karla is the first Inuk person to become a tenured professor at a Canadian University. This means she has a permanent teaching position.