Paulgaard’s research interests included globalization, center-periphery dynamics, geography of education, and cultural identities. In autumn 2015, when refugees from 35 nations arrived in a northern Norwegian municipality via the Arctic Migration Route, she began studying their resettlement experiences. These refugees crossed Europe’s northernmost Schengen border, the border between Russia and northern Norway. This Arctic Migration Route, situated above the 69th parallel north, offered an alternative to the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings for those seeking safety and protection.

Her speech will explore how refugees navigate new and often unfamiliar landscapes, emphasizing the role of education, local practices, and collective memories. By integrating theories of place-based experiences with phenomenology of practice, she will highlight the local impact of global conflicts in northern regions. Drawing on interviews with refugee families, young people, local authorities, teachers, and volunteers, she will discuss the sensory and emotional aspects of resettlement, including feelings of orientation and disorientation, and how place-based experiences, climate, and culture influence refugee integration in new environments.

Based on collaboration with her Danish colleague, Dr. Lisa Herslund, she will demonstrate that despite several differences between Norwegian and Danish rural areas in terms of distance, climate, and population density, the experiences of young refugees reveal surprisingly many similarities. This collaboration opened opportunities to analyze how differences are shaped through lived practice, producing ‘contradictions of space’ for people settling in new landscapes.