NEWPORT, R.I. - A Vermont Law School professor whose current research focuses on a range of comparative Canadian and U.S. issues in the Arctic will give a free, public lecture at Salve Regina next week.
Betsy Baker will present “A Race to the North? Arctic Security and Why the International Law of the Sea Treaty Matters” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 in the Young Building as part of the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy's “Making Difference” lecture series.
The Young Building is located at the corner of Bellevue and Ruggles avenues on Salve Regina’s campus.
Baker views the Arctic Science Summit Week 2007 at Dartmouth College as a turning point in her work on the law of the sea. Her attendance at the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment led to a berth on the icebreaker USCGC Healy in 2008 and 2009, as a member of the science crew mapping the U.S. extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.
Baker’s collaborative experience with her scientist shipmates inspired her to move in new directions with teaching and writing. Examining the interactions between science, policy and law guides how she teaches comparative and international law, property and a seminar on the Arctic and the law of the sea. In 2009-2010 she was a research fellow at Dartmouth College with the Dickey Center for International Understanding and its Institute of Arctic Studies.
Baker’s current research focuses on issues ranging from offshore oil and gas regulation to federal-indigenous relations to integrated ecosystems-based management in the Beaufort Sea.
The Pell Center's “Making Difference” lecture series follows the principle that one small change can lead to larger influence. With topics such as environmental policy, global ethics, the role of music and support for war veterans and their families, the lecture series seeks to challenge how each of us, in our own way, can be the change we wish to seek in the world.
Seating for Baker's lecture is limited and reservations are required. For more information, or to reserve a seat, contact the Pell Center at (401) 341-2927 or
pellcenter@salve.edu.