Call for papers: international conference "The Development of Folkloristics and Ethnology", Tartu, May 17-19, 2007

Call for Papers

Reflecting on Knowledge Production: The Development of Folkloristics and Ethnology

Dear colleague

For more than a year, a group of scholars from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and Latvia has cooperated to investigate the development and practices of the study of folklore/folklife/ethnology. We have been interested in our disciplinary histories in general to unravel their ontological entanglements and epistemological bases from a critical perspective. Considering the present state of affairs when the concept of cultural heritage seems to become once again a powerful social and political asset in the world that shrinks under the pressures of global cultural (ex)change, it seems important to elaborate on how the knowledge on which such claims rest has been produced. This new research network proposes to turn a fresh inquisitive gaze to the culture of scholars and scholarship: by looking at the constraints and contingencies of the institutionalization process, cultural politics and state policies, nationalization of scholarship, but contemplating also the knowledge legacies of authoritative figures in the field, personal histories, the aspect of gender, the necessity for, and the contingencies of international networks in research history.

Hoping that such a combination of historical perspective and critical reflexive stance finds good resonance among our colleagues, we would like to expand the circle of scholars and histories engaged in these discussions. For that purpose, we plan to convene a conference under the general title Reflecting on Knowledge Production: The Development of Folkloristics and Ethnology, at the University of Tartu, Estonia, in May 17–19, 2007.

This scholarly event assembles to discuss our disciplinary histories with an agenda to negotiate the state (and status) of the fields of folkloristics and ethnology not only in the past, but also in the present and in future. In order to ensure fruitful discussions and equal distribution of interests, it seems reasonable to limit the number of participants around thirty. In connection with this project, we foresee a set of publications, and work towards establishing a doctoral school, in order to introduce this research area to the younger generation of scholars. Among others, the conveners include Pertti Anttonen, Regina Bendix, Dace Bula, Barbro Klein, Kristin Kuutma, Stein Mathisen, Diarmuid Ó Giolláin.

We hope that you will find this topic timely and interesting, and will join us by contributing a paper at this conference. Each presentation will be allotted thirty minutes (ten minutes for discussion included). Please e-mail an abstract of approximately 250 words, to the following addresses: kkuutma@ut.ee and monika_tasa@hotmail.com.

The submission deadline is March 1, 2007. Please provide a separate page with the paper's title, author's name, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address.

On behalf of the organizing committee
Kristin Kuutma
Associate Professor and Senior Researcher
Folkloristics, Ethnology, and Communication Studies
University of Tartu
Ülikooli 16
51003 Tartu
Estonia