The Last Frontier: Telling Northern Stories to Southern Audiences

Drawing on his work across the Arctic, from Alaska through Canada, Greenland, and Norway, Neil will discuss how stories about the north are  told to “southern” audiences and why such stories are often considered distant or exotic by those living at lower latitudes. In this talk, he'll share insights on storytelling that connects lives, landscapes, and lessons across borders.

Free and open to all, this program can be attended on campus or streamed live via Zoom. 

“The Last Frontier: Telling Northern Stories to Southern Audiences”

Snedden Speaker Series featuring Neil Shea

Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m. AKSTLocation: BP Design Theater (located in the Usibelli Building)

Zoom Option: Zoom https://alaska.zoom.us/j/88020904719This event is sponsored by the UAF Department of Science & Environmental Journalism. This lecture is made possible by an endowment from the late Helen Snedden, in honor of her husband, former Fairbanks Daily News-Miner publisher C.W. Snedden.

About Neil Shea

Neil Shea is the author of Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic. For over 20 years he’s covered conflict, climate, and cultural transformation around the world for National Geographic, and he’s also a contributing editor with the Virginia Quarterly Review and The American Scholar. Neil also writes for film, television, and podcasts. His investigative podcast series, Unfinished: Deep South, about the life, legacy, and unsolved lynching of a wealthy Black farmer at the dawn of the Civil Rights era, was nominated for Peabody Award in 2020. 

About the Snedden Speaker Series:The Snedden Speaker Series is made possible through the generosity of Helen Snedden, who endowed a chair of journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in honor of her late husband, Charles Willis "Bill" Snedden. Bill, a visionary journalist and former owner of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, built his life around telling great stories and nurturing a vibrant press in the Interior. Helen established the Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism to continue Bill’s legacy of educating and mentoring young journalists. The series has featured some of the nation’s most distinguished reporters, including 11 Pulitzer Prize winners, providing an invaluable opportunity for UAF students to learn from the best in the field.Support the Snedden Speaker Series:Do you enjoy the work we do? Consider supporting the series through an online donation to the Journalism Special Guest Fund:

https://engage.alaska.edu/donation-with-cart?fid=MllU1Wk7YHY%3d&fdesc=U7WB4fIQMSl0A6vwBAvZs195GNhJrOJHMUOapDwGS3ux3wiziB4inGiwi69BYZzMiJqef0fKXuE%3d#CLAis #UAFJournalism #SneddenLecture #LocalJournalismMatters #NanookNation 

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