This is the first experimental issue of Culture Unbound. It contains only one publication, which is a collaborative article co-written by 32 authors. Open peer reviews are also included in the publication and the reviewers are on the list of authors. The format of the article offers the reader a choice to read it either in a traditional linear way, or to hop from one section to another using the interactive interface of the document. The purpose of this issue is to support unconventional and creative ways of sharing research, to encourage conversations about academic thinking, writing, and publishing, and also to play around with ways of reading academic publications.
Alla inlägg av Admin
Postdoctoral fellow in digital humanities at Umeå University
Postdoctoral fellow in digital humanities at Umeå University
The employment is a full-time, fixed-term position for 2 years, starting September 1, 2023 unless otherwise agreed. The selected candidate is required to be present at the unit to a high extent.
Last application date: 17 May 2023
CFP: International Conference of Young Folklorists
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 15 MAY 2023
The 12th International Conference of Young Folklorists
Beyond the Field: Fieldwork in the 21st Century
September 13–15, 2023, Riga, Latvia
Folklore studies have relied on firsthand encounters as a source of data since the 19th century when the first folklorists set out to collect oral lore from European peasantry. Since then, the discipline and the ways of human communication have changed tremendously; however, even in today’s digital environment, communication between folklore scholars and their informants has not lost its importance. Reflexivity has become an integral part of the discipline and the ethical principles of fieldwork have advanced considerably. The power relations in fieldwork have been transformed by applying collaborative ethnography as a methodological framework. Thus, folk performers are not seen as a mere source of information, but rather as fieldwork collaborators and co-creators of knowledge. The practical aspect of fieldwork has developed alongside technological advancements allowing the folklore collectors to capture their informants on various media.
Moreover, the proliferation of digital technologies, social media platforms, and other virtual spaces of the 21st century have inevitably modified how we define ’the field’ itself. The global Covid-19 pandemic made researchers adapt to online interactions as the key form of communication, since the mobility of researchers was limited. The devastating Russian invasion of Ukraine has suspended fieldwork, disrupted research, and brought the future into uncertainty and precariousness for many. This poses the challenges of fieldwork during warfare and socio-political crises, questioning the ethical responsibilities that come with it.
Despite the constantly changing world around us, folklore scholars still prefer the firsthand observation of informants and communities in their habitats and documentation of their knowledge as the main research method. The 12th International Conference of Young Folklorists welcomes proposals for papers on various fieldwork-related topics. Potential themes include but are not limited to the following subject areas:
– Historical perspectives and contexts of the fieldwork-based data collection;
– Fieldwork materials in folklore archives;
– Emotions, body, and fieldwork;
– Fieldwork at the time of crisis and unstable political contexts;
– Landscape and fieldwork: cultural heritage and the Anthropocene;
– Posthuman approaches and other-than-human interaction in the field;
– Feminist and queer ethnography;
– Ethical challenges of documenting sensitive and controversial data;
– Professional responsibility: informed consent and representation;
– Challenges and opportunities of digital ethnography and working in the virtual field;
– Managing intersectional identities in at-home ethnography;
– Scholars and community: the power dynamics of the fieldwork.
Since fieldwork as a method is relevant not only in folklore studies, but also in anthropology, oral history, cultural heritage studies, and other related disciplines, participants from other fields are also welcome to join the conference.
The working language of the conference is English. Please submit abstracts of 350 words, along with your name, institutional affiliation, email, and a brief biographical note (2–3 sentences) to the conference email rigayofo(@)gmail.com.
The deadline for the abstracts is 1 May 2023 (extended to 15 May). Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by 1 June 2023. There is no conference fee, but participants are expected to cover their travel and accommodation expenses.
The conference is organized by the Archives of Latvian Folklore, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, and will be held at the National Library of Latvia
Vikariat som lektor i etnologi, Södertörns högskola
Ett vikariat som lektor i etnologi utlyses vid Södertörns högskola i Stockholm. Anställningen är tidsbegränsad med omfattning om 30 – 50 % med varaktighet på 6 månader eller under perioden 2023-08-01 – 2023-01-31. Tillträde enligt överenskommelse.
Sista ansökningadag 8 maj 2023.
Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences (2023)
Charlotte Engman disputerar den 5 maj 2023 i etnologi vid Umeå Universitet med en avhandling vid namn Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences. Opponent är Anna Rastas.
Tid: Fredag 5 maj, 2023 kl. 10:00 – 12:00
Plats: UB.A 240, Lindellhallen 4, Samhällsvetarhuset, Umeå
Avhandlingens abstrakt:
‘Decolonisation’ is a frequently used expression in museum contexts, and a growing museal practice. In ethnographic museums, such attempts are usually performed in the shape of projects that seek to establish new relationships with source– or diasporan communities. However, little research has been produced about how these practices relate to the political demands and expectations set on state museums, and how they are shaped in a Swedish context. By following the project Ongoing Africa at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, the thesis aims to explore how different museal logics condition activities, are reproduced, and relate to each other. The empirical data consists of interviews with museum staff and collaborators engaged in the project, observations of project activities, and written data such as policy documents and government publications.
The findings show that tension and ambivalence characterise museal decoloniality. Along with ideals of social inclusion, co-creation and decolonial agendas, the museal economy is being eroded and activities market-adjusted, at the same time as the museum is also expected to be educative and authoritarian. While museum professionals struggle with creating relevance for the museum and the collections, the latter has been discursively fragmented through contemporary investments in heritage justice and repatriation discourse. To external stake holders, the ethnographic collection symbolises ongoing forms of colonial violence and heritage items that contribute to diasporan identity formation. Furthermore, the public museum is today a place where contemporary anti-racist ideology manifest itself through silences performed in relation to racialisation, and knowledge is at the museum a contingent and relational practice.
Two doctoral students in Ethnology within the ERC project Conspirations: Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories
Two doctoral students in Ethnology within the ERC project Conspirations: Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories at Lund University, The Faculties of Humanities and Theology.
In recent years, conspiracy theories have become an important issue not only to the people who propagate them, but also to those who fear their consequences and design initiatives to push back against the ‘post-truth’ era. The objective of CONSPIRATIONS is to analyse this growing tension over conspiracy theories in Europe. The project proposes an innovative approach which moves beyond an exclusive focus on ‘truthers’ to examine the perspective of ‘truth defenders’ as well. This approach goes beyond the question of who is wrong and what to do about it. Instead, it offers a deeper understanding of the conflicts themselves, which are clearly of urgent importance for contemporary Europe. The premise of this project is that the answer lies not in addressing the content of the conspiracy theories themselves, but rather the kinds of conditions that give rise to them. The secondary goal is to understand how these conflicts are influenced by social contexts, and how they unfold across diverse European settings. The objectives of this project will be achieved through ethnographic case studies in Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and EU institutions.
Read more about the positions here.
Last application date: 21 May 2023
Stipendium Svenska Emigrantinstitutet
Just nu utlyses ett stipendium från Svenska Emigrantinstitutet.
Stipendiet är avsett för vetenskaplig forskning knuten till Svenska Emigrantinstitutets samlingar och den sökande ska vara doktorand eller inneha en doktorsexamen. Sista ansökningsdag är 5 maj 2023.
Sensations from RE:22 – the 35th Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Congress in Reykjavík 13-16 June 2022
Sensations from RE:22 – the 35th Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Congress in Reykjavík 13-16 June 2022. A four-minute film to capture the spirit of the conference for those who missed it and to refresh the memory of those who took part. Turn on the sound and feel free to share!
450 ethnologists and folklorist from 38 countries (2/3 from Norden) gave and listened to 335 papers in 82 panels, and discussed research ranging from sustainabilities in everyday life to mommy influencers, and from children‘s experience of uncertainty due to global climate catastrophe to queer mermaids in the North Atlantic, stopping along the way to discuss ptarmigans in Sami folklore, what happens to love locks removed from bridges, the coolness of the remote, and Wu-han-dshakes and other rituals of greeting in pandemic times.
They also planted 4000 trees, visited the president, partied in the pool, and sang karaoke at lunch.
Film by Áslaug Einarsdóttir.
Släpp av boken ”I kalla krigets spår. Hot, våld och beskydd som kulturarv” på Armémuseum i Stockholm
Torsdag 4 maj 2023 17.30 – 19.00
Riddargatan 13, Stockholm
Det förflutna används ständigt för att ge mening åt nuet. ”I kalla krigets spår” skildrar framväxten av ett nytt svenskt militärt kulturarv. Här visas hur minnen och lämningar från en tid fylld av rädsla och säkerhetspolitiska spänningar får nya innebörder när bunkrar och nedlagda militäranläggningar omvandlas till museer, lyxbostäder och spännande besöksmål.
Boken är ett resultat av ett tvärvetenskapligt forskningsprojekt. Författarna är forskare i etnologi, genusvetenskap, internationella relationer och konstvetenskap vid Stockholms universitet.
I samband med boksläppet kommer författarna Mattias Frihammar, Fredrik Krohn Andersson, Maria Wendt och Cecilia Åse att presentera boken. Det kommer att finnas förfriskningar och tilltugg och möjlighet att köpa boken på plats.
OBS! Anmälan i förväg till mattias.frihammar(@)etnologi.su.se.
NCK söker en projektledare
Nordiskt centrum för kulturarvspedagogik (NCK) är ett forsknings- och utvecklingscentrum inom kulturarvssektorn, lokaliserat till Östersund. Vi söker nu en vikarierande projektledare. Tjänsten är på heltid under ett år. Start enligt överenskommelse. Sista ansökningsdag 7 maj 2023.