Alina Bykova is a PhD candidate in history at Stanford University and a senior associate and the editor-in-chief at The Arctic Institute. Her research looks at transnational Soviet and Arctic environmental history with a focus on resource extraction and the Cold War. Her PhD dissertation, titled, “Extraction Islands: environment, politics and security on Svalbard, 1850 to present,” examines hunting, fishing, coal mining, scientific research, and tourism as extractive activities on the archipelago.