The School of Public Policy and Administration welcomes Giuseppe Amatulli as a postdoctoral fellow working with Frances Abele, Catherine MacQuarrie and Satsan in the research project Rebuilding First Nations Governance.
Giuseppe Amatulli, Postdoctoral Fellow
Amatulli considers himself a citizen of the world and has travelled the globe for his research. After completing a BA in political science and international relations and an MA in political science in his home country of Italy, he studied at the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University in Finland to complete his EMA Degree in Human Rights and Democratization.
Since then, Amatulli has worked as a researcher, PhD student and postdoctoral fellow in Luxembourg, Finland, Australia, the United Kingdom and Norway. For his doctorate and post-doctorate research, he conducted extensive fieldwork in Fort St. John (July 2019 to August 2020, and again August to September 2022), where he carried out research with the Land Office of Doig River First Nation. In the last years, Amatulli has also spent time in Prince George, giving presentations at the UNBC, and in Prince Rupert, where he conducted fieldwork in the summer of 2022 in the context of the research project “Arctic Silk Road Research Group – Imagining Global Infrastructures across the Circumpolar North,” funded by the Research Council of Norway.
“I am an enthusiastic anthropologist, passionate about the Arctic and sub-Arctic region and its biological and socio-cultural diversity and richness,” says Amatulli. “Since 2012, I have been studying issues related to Indigenous peoples, extractivism and sustainability in Arctic and sub-Arctic areas.”
Amatulli completed his PhD in 2022 in socio-legal anthropology from Durham University (United Kingdom) in the Durham ARCTIC PhD Program. His PhD research focused on the cumulative effects of industrial development and their impact on the culture, lifestyle and socio-economic organization of both Doig River and Blueberry River First Nations.
Amatulli is involved in several networks and research panels including the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Resources. From February 2020 till January 2023, he was a PhD representative on the UARCTIC board, and since January 2023, he is an honorary fellow of the Department of Anthropology, Durham University, U.K. He is also a member of several scientific committees, such as the SC of the UArctic Academy for Sustainability 2023 (for which he is also a co-organizer), the Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies 2025, and he is part of the ICARP IV Task Force.
In terms of research and knowledge mobilization, Amatulli has a solid record of publications, together with podcasts and online articles, to inform academic as well as non-academic audiences. He is currently finalizing a book chapter on the expansion of the port of Prince Rupert, in which he explores how the economic development generated by port activities has shaped the vision that locals and Indigenous people of the area have about the future and whether alternative socio-economic paths are possible. He is also among the editors of a forthcoming Handbook on Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement — comparing the Global South and the Global North, for which he is writing a chapter on meaningful stakeholder engagement in North-Eastern B.C. in cooperation with the band manager of Doig River First Nation.
Recent Publications
Amatulli, Giuseppe, ‘Climbing the Trail to Heaven: Traditional Funerals and Burial Practices in Dane-zaa Territory – An Ethnographic account from North-eastern British Columbia’, in Mortality, Routledge – Taylor and Francis Group, 2023 (accepted, currently under publication).
Amatulli, Giuseppe, Commentary on ‘Decolonizing Production: Healing, Belonging, and Social Change in Sápmi’ by Natalia Magnani and Matthew Magnani, in Current Anthropology, Volume 63, Number 3, University of Chicago Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1086/720639
Amatulli, Giuseppe, ‘Cumulative effects of Industrial development and Treaty 8 Infringements in Northeastern British Columbia: the litigation Yahey v. BC (S151727) – Case comment’, in Arctic Review on Law and Politics, NOASP, Vol. 13, April 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v13.3802