Chris Southcott is a professor of sociology at Lakehead University with over 35 years of experience partnering with northern communities to undertake research related to their needs. His research has focussed on the social and economic challenges of northern communities. His earlier published academic work highlighted the usefulness of interdisciplinary work comparing regions of the circumpolar world in the face of issues such as globalization and migration.

From 2006 to 2011 he led a large social science project called the Social Economy Research Network for Northern Canada (SERNNoCa) that looked at the potential of social economy organizations to contribute to the well-being of northern communities. Following this, in 2011 he was awarded what was then the largest Arctic social science grant to lead an international interdisciplinary research program, Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic (ReSDA), which examined the impacts of extractive industry on Arctic communities.

Southcott has been an active contributor to the creation and growth of the University of the Arctic, being involved prior to its foundation. He helped lead the development of UArctic's foundational curriculum, helped found and led the national agency which organized initial Canadian participation in the UArctic’s north2north program, served as Chair of the north2north Program Team, and helped organize the initial research agenda of the UArctic as the first Chair of the Research Outreach Team (Mimir). He was a member of the Senior Leadership Team of the UArctic from 2004 until 2008 (then known as Pomot) and then Ma-Mawi from its beginnings in 2008 to 2014.