Theme: Frontiers: hidden, visible, mobile

SIEF2027 in Bolzano, Italy, 3-6 August 2027 “Frontiers: hidden, visible, mobile” “Frontiers” speak to the current global situation, which is affected by the return of nationalist ideologies, imperialist domination, colonial expansionism and wars. This puts into question the value of tolerance, democracy, and international law, suggesting that these have been illusions. It is timely to address the ambiguities, contradictions and paradoxes embedded in the notion of frontiers, reimagining them to envision and shape a better future for terrestrial life.

Frontiers do not only refer to social boundaries and historical political borders as complex “borderscapes”. They also mean “horizons” of discovery and expansion in both a metaphorical (e.g. the frontiers of science) and a literal sense (the frontiers of colonization). Whether visible or hidden, borderscapes and horizons are inherently mobile in space and time. They remind us of colonial enterprises and violence, as well as of decoloniality as a frontier paradigm.

Starting from these possible understandings of frontiers, SIEF2027 invites ethnologists, folklorists, anthropologists, and scholars from adjacent fields, to explore the many ways of framing visible, hidden and mobile frontiers.

SIEF2027 will be hybrid: all panels and plenaries will be available to both face-to-face delegates and those online in Zoom, whether that be listening or presenting.
(*unless there are physical barriers to online access, e.g. a walking workshop)

The programme will run over four full days. Each day of the Congress will include a keynote/plenary event and a series of parallel panel sessions that discuss selected themes. There will be a closing plenary roundtable and the Young Scholars Prize lecture.

This congress has panels of various formats: panels, roundtables, workshops, combined formats

Read more about proposing your panel here

The Call for panels is open between 21 September and 2 November 2026.