This introduction to this issue of The Polar Journal champions the work of early career researchers working in the humanities and social sciences addressing themes and topics pertaining to the Polar Regions. Mindful that no collection of essays can be comprehensive, the 10 essays presented here are interdisciplinary and geographically varied, involving writers hailing from institutions based in Australia, Europe and North America. Theoretically and methodologically, the essays presented here use textual and visual analysis, ethnography, discourse analysis, and draw upon theorising pertaining to identity politics, institutional analysis, security studies, cultural nationalism, regimes and governance and futures-based research. While clearly drawing upon the existing scholarship of established scholars, the collection as a whole points to the importance of ongoing capacity building in the social sciences and humanities with regard to the Polar Regions.