Laboratory for Applied Social Research (LASR)

The Laboratory for Applied Social Research in the Department of Sociology at Northern Arizona University strives to provide high-quality social research services to partners and clients inside the university and out, to develop opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to gain experience in working on applied research projects, and to serve university and local community members as a resource in support of social research activities.

LASR offers a range of research services to clients, including survey design and implementation, focus groups, program evaluation, data analysis, and data management.

The NORPAK Review

Volume 1, Issue 1, Fall 2026

The NORPAK Review is a cross-disciplinary, editor-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to advancing research, dialogue, and knowledge exchange across the fields of circumpolar studies, critical Arctic studies, Arctic social sciences, and desert studies. The journal was launched as a platform to reduce barriers to knowledge sharing and expand opportunities for exchange beyond conventional disciplinary and academic boundaries. It highlights scholarly, practitioner, student, and community based work, including research articles and notes, conference presentations, methodological papers, community studies, and applied research that connects knowledge to practice, policy, and lived experience. In doing so, The NORPAK Review provides space for diverse forms of knowledge production that engage with the social, cultural, political, environmental, and economic realities shaping northern, Arctic, and desert regions. Download the entire first issue here or visit the repository directly.

Editorial Introduction
Rethinking the North: An Introduction to The NORPAK Review.
Stefanie Kunze and Ibrahim Berrada
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Research Article
The Language of Conquest: The Role of Linguistic Weaponisation in the Establishment of Settler Colonial States
Jessica Louise Hall
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Research Article
Cat’s Cradle as a Relational Framework in Mapping Traditional Knowledge: Herders of Kazakhstan, Farmers of the Italian South, and Tribal Communities of the US Gulf Coast
Arina Melkozernova and Dilraba Anayatova
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Methodologies
Experiential Archives and Northern Policy: A Counter-Policy Method for Community-Centred Research
John W. Bessai
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 Student Research Article
The Paradoxical Relationship Between NATO’s Operation Arctic Sentry Securitization Discourse and the Environmental Effects of Russian Shadow Fleets
Evan Davis, Eric Hardwick, John Reznichek, Baibhav Saraf, and Roderick Toms
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Research Notes
Digital imaginaries, lived experiences, and Arctic Ocean futures: Between global representations and situated knowledges
Laetitia Barbu and Jiang Yang
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Research Notes
Frozen in time: The un-sustainable development of the Hawaiian tourism industry and its effects on Indigenous Hawaiian sovereignty
Henri Keskinen
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Research Notes
The art of writing environmental myths in the Arctic: Resilience and meaning-making at the UArctic Congress
Michael Laiho 
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Open Access
The NORPAK Review is an open-access journal published by the Northern Research, Policy, and Arctic Knowledge Hub (NORPAK) and the Department of Sociology at Northern Arizona University. NORPAK and the Department of Sociology hold membership in the University of the Arctic (UArctic), an international network of universities, research institutes, and organizations engaged in northern and Arctic research and education.

Creative Commons License
© 2026 The NORPAK Review. Copyright remains with their respective authors. Unless otherwise indicated, content published in The NORPAK Review is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Third-party materials are excluded from this license and remain subject to their respective copyright terms.

Our people

Affiliated faculty

April Petillo, PhD
Director, Laboratory for Applied Social Research (LASR)
Co-Chair, Department of Social Transformation (Women’s and Gender Studies Lead)
Email: April.Petillo@nau.edu
Phone: 928-523-6552

Stefanie Kunze, PhD
Executive Director, Northern Research, Policy, and Arctic Knowledge Hub (NORPAK)
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Email: Stefanie.Kunze@nau.edu
Phone: 928-523-9458

Ibrahim Berrada, PhD
Director of Northern Research, NORPAK
Associate Director of Applied Student Research, LASR
Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Sociology
Ibrahim.Berrada@nau.edu

Contact us

To contact the LASR team regarding a potential project, please fill out the form below.