Ethnologia Scandinavica welcome article proposals

To the 2026 edition of the journal Ethnologia Scandinavica we now welcome article proposals. The editors receive proposals in abstract format until the 9th of June. Provided that the proposals are accepted, we look forward to a complete script 1st of November when a review process starts.
Ethnologia Scandinavica is ranked level 2 on the so-called Norwegian list, as well as the Finnish scientific community’s counterpart. ES is also approved for the European reference index for the humanities and social sciences (ERIH PLUS).
Welcome with your article suggestions!
Lars-Eric Jönsson (editor in chief)

https://gustavadolfsakademien.se/tidskrifter/tidskrift/ethnologia-scandinavica

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Inför 2026 års upplaga av tidskriften Ethnologia Scandinavica välkomnas nu förslag på artiklar. Redaktionen tar till och med 9e juni emot förslag i abstract-format. Under förutsättning att förslagen accepteras ser vi fram emot ett komplett manus 1 november då en granskningsprocess tar vid.
Ethnologia Scandinavica är rankad på nivå 2 på den s.k. norska listan, liksom på det finska vetenskapliga samfundets motsvarighet. ES är också godkänd för European reference index for the humanities and social sciences (ERIH PLUS).
Välkommen med artikelförslag!
Lars-Eric Jönsson (huvudredaktör)

https://gustavadolfsakademien.se/tidskrifter/tidskrift/ethnologia-scandinavica

Thesis defence: Aida Jobarteh. Routes and Ruptures of the Mediterranean Backway: An ethnography of Gambian men navigating the European border regime (2025)

Aida Jobarteh defends her thesis in Ethnology ”Routes and Ruptures of the Mediterranean Backway. An ethnography of Gambian men navigating the European border regime” at Stockholm University.

The defence will be held May 28 2025, 10:00 at hörsal 3, hus 2, Campus Albano, Albanovägen 20, Stockholm, and will also be available via Zoom (in english). The opponent is Marie Sandberg (Associate professor in ethnology at the University of Copenhagen).

Read more here.

The thesis can be found open access in DiVA

Abstract:

This thesis examines how Gambian men navigate and assert themselves within the political economy of borders through their migration to Europe. By centering their lived experiences, I analyze how they negotiate, respond to, and resist borders along the Mediterranean Backway, with a particular focus on their arrival and continued pathways in Italy. The study highlights various vantage points along the participants’ migration trajectories – from their departure from the Gambia and transit through Libya to their interactions with Italian state institutions. Particular attention is given to their encounters with the migration and asylum system, the labor market, and the asylum accommodation system in Italy.

Drawing on critical border studies, critical phenomenology, theories of Black masculinity, and racial capitalism, this study interrogates the European border regime from the perspective of those navigating Its’s margins. The concept of border tactics works as an analytical tool to explore how control over mobility manifests in the participants’ everyday lives. These tactics are conceptualized as reactive measures employed by states in response to migratory movements. The central border tactics identified in this thesis are containment, categorization, formal abandonment, and temporal control.

Methodologically, the research draws on ethnographic engagements with eight core participants and nine occasional participants over a period of five to six years. This has involved interviews, conversations, participant observations, video documentation, and collaborative, participant-driven methods conducted across five Italian cities. Grounded in an ethnological and decolonial tradition, the research has been guided by participatory methods that center the co-construction of knowledge between the research participants and the researcher, centering the participants’ own narratives and experiences of migration.

The thesis studies the participants’ use of vernacular concepts in their narratives of the Mediterranean Backway, such as the Babylon system, napse, just sitting, and semester. These expressions become anchor points in the analysis to understand how they navigate various border tactics. In doing so, the analysis situates the European border regime within enduring structures of coloniality, racial hierarchies, and capitalist exploitation, highlighting the production of a racialized, exploitable labor pool of migrant workers. By centering understandings of migration, mobility, and border control from the margins, this study challenges Eurocentric knowledge production and foregrounds alternative knowledge of borders and movement drawn from participants’ own narratives. The thesis contributes to an interrogation of the profitability of borders – how borders actively shape the political economy of migration.

Presentera din forskning kreativt

Välkommen på doktorandkonferens till Vetenskapernas hus den 22–23 maj!

Konferensen riktar sig till doktorander och nydisputerade inom humaniora och samhällsvetenskaper vars forskning berör det svenska i Finland och erbjuder ett forum för reflektion och utveckling. Konferensens syfte är att ge doktorander verktyg för att presentera sin forskning kreativt och inspirerande i vetenskapliga sammanhang.

På konferensen ger Fredrik Nilsson (Åbo Akademi) en föreläsning om popularisering av forskning. Konferensen innefattar även en paneldiskussion med Elisabeth Morney, Ann-Charlotte Palmgren (Åbo Akademi) och Fredrik Nilsson där de diskuterar kreativa sätt att presentera forskning. Som moderator fungerar Hanna Nordenswan. Konferensdeltagarna presenterar sin forskning i form av posters samt en kort muntlig presentation.

Anmälan förlängd till 14.5. Mer information finns i anmälningsblanketten

Du hittar anmälningsblanketten här: https://www.sls.fi/evenemang/sls-doktorandkonferens-presentera-din-forskning-kreativt/ 

Frågelista: Transplantationer från djur till människa

Användningen av celler, vävnader och hjärtklaffar från djur är sedan länge en etablerad teknik inom transplantationsmedicin. Till exempel så används ofta grisar för att ersätta människors hjärtklaffar. Forskare har nu börjat utforska möjligheterna att transplantera hela grisorgan till människa. Utvecklingen inom detta område går snabbt. År 2022 genomfördes världens första transplantation med grishjärta till människa. År 2025 godkände den amerikanska läkemedelsmyndigheten en klinisk prövning på amerikanska patienter. Xenotransplantation anses vara en lovande teknik för att bemöta bristen på donation av mänskliga organ vilket är ett globalt problem. Många osäkerhetsfaktorer måste dock hanteras parallellt med utvecklingen av tekniken.

Frågelistan är skapad av forskare vid Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper, Lunds universitet, i samverkan med Folklivsarkivet i Lund.

Länk till frågelistan: https://fragelista.folklivsarkivet.lu.se/index.php/883899?lang=sv

Slutdatum: 19 maj 2025

CfP Ethnologia Fennica 1/2026: Words and Concepts

In this call for papers, we invite researchers to reflect on conceptual work in their studies. We call for research and review articles that explore the choices and practices of finding, defining and using concepts. We are also interested in examples of how creative writing practices can enhance the research process or the communication of its results.

Please submit your article abstracts by June 23rd. The issue will be published in June 2026.

Ethnologia Fennica is an English language online journal that publishes original scholarly articles, review articles, congress reports and book reviews that promote ethnological research. The articles undergo double-blind peer review.

Medel för svenskspråkig kurslitteratur

Vi utlyser en gemensam fondsatsning med syfte att producera ny svenskspråkig kurslitteratur samt komplettera, uppdatera och översätta redan existerande kurslitteratur till svenska. Kurslitteraturen bör ämnesmässigt beröra finländska förhållanden och kan riktas till alla utbildningsnivåer inom universitet och högskolor. Satsningen är ett samarbete mellan Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Svenska kulturfonden, Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi, Stiftelsen Brita Maria Renlunds minne och Lisi Wahls stiftelse för studieunderstöd.

Medlen är öppna att sökas av undervisande personal och forskare inom humaniora och samhällsvetenskaper samt närliggande ämnen som till exempel juridik, teologi och pedagogik.

Medlen beviljas för befattningar som förläggs till ett universitet i Finland enligt den sökandes önskemål. Den sökande ska på förhand överenskomma om detta med universitetet i fråga. Befattningen kan vara högst 10 månader, de kan vara på heltid eller deltid (minst 40 %). Den maximala arbetstiden för en ansökan är därmed 10 månader heltidsarbete.

Läs mer på SLS hemsida.

Ansökningstiden är 2.5-15.6.2025.

Public defence Johanna Latva: Hiuksetko naisen kruunu? Suhtautuminen naisten kaljuuteen ja naisten kokemukset hiuksettomuudesta Suomessa (2025)

FM Johanna Latva will publicly defend her doctoral dissertation Hiuksetko naisen kruunu? Suhtautuminen naisten kaljuuteen ja naisten kokemukset hiuksettomuudesta Suomessa (Is the hair a woman’s crown? Attitudes towards women’s baldness and women’s experiences of hairlessness in Finland) at the University of Turku on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at 12:00 PM (University of Turku, Arcanum, Aava Lecture Hall, Arcanuminkuja 1, Turku).

The opponent will be Docent Hanna Ojala (University of Tampere) and the custos will be Docent Tytti Suominen (University of Turku). The event will be held in Finnish. The field of the dissertation is ethnology.

It is possible to participate remotely.

Read more here

The dissertation is available in the university’s publication archive: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-02-0088-6

Abstract in english:

Is the hair a woman’s crown? Attitudes towards women’s baldness and women’s experiences of hairlessness in Finland

This dissertation examines women’s experiences regarding baldness and the prevailing attitudes towards women’s hairlessness in the Finnish society and culture. The study explores women’s personal experiences of baldness and the public discourse around the matter. The research argues that being bald is still regarded as an abnormal and unbecoming of the gender, despite the increased exposure women’s baldness has gained in the 2000s.

The research material consists of responses to the Finnish Literature Society’s questionnaire regarding bald women as well as digitized newspapers from the collections of the National Library of Finland and Sanoma archives. The temporal context of the research is mainly from the 1990s to the 2020s. The research methods include close reading, thematic analysis, content analysis and cultural analysis. Ethnography and cultural analysis form the methodological foundation for the research. By focusing on the theoretical concepts of embodiment, gender and wellbeing the research contributes to the scientific and societal discussions on cultural health research, body normativity and dress studies.

The research considers both women who are bald by choice and those who have lost their hair due to illness such as alopecia areata or the side effects resulting from cancer treatments. The study confirms that women’s baldness has a strong influence on women´s identity and personal agency. Consequently, the research contributes to discussion on bald women’s life management and how they express their gender identity. Baldness can have an effect on one’s self esteem and relationships while also influencing the person´s clothing styles. It is also a source of various kinds of feelings ranging from shame and sorrow to pride and joy.

The dissertation demonstrates the crucial role of gender in how baldness is experienced and how it influences both the way bald people are encountered and the general attitudes towards baldness. The research also highlights the fact that the reasons behind one’s baldness have no significant influence on the attitudes towards the bald. However, baldness has received more exposure and acceptance over the last few years due to women’s own actions.

Monikerroksinen maaseutu Arki, muistot ja mielikuvat (2025)

The anthology Monikerroksinen maaseutu Arki, muistot ja mielikuvat is edited by Ville Pöysä, Helena Ristaniemi, Lauri Julkunen & Kaisa Vehkalahti.

The multi-layered countryside delves behind the traditional rural imagery into people’s everyday lives and experiences, exploring how the countryside appears both as an everyday living environment and as a mental landscape.

There are many stereotypical perceptions of the countryside that have been passed down for decades. But what is life really like in sparsely populated areas in today’s Finland?

The multi-layered countryside delves behind the traditional rural imagery into people’s everyday lives and experiences, exploring how the countryside appears both as an everyday living environment and as a mental landscape. At the same time, it highlights the diversity of the countryside and sparsely populated areas, as well as the regional and cultural differences within the country.

Utilizing interviews, photographs, oral histories, and popular music, the work sheds light on themes that receive little attention in media discussions and are not captured by statistical data. For example, it highlights the lives of minorities in remote villages, the relationship of forest owners with their forests, and the maintenance of everyday security near the eastern border.

You can find the book here

Resilient Pastoralism : A Cultural Analysis of Navigating Climate Change, Modernity and the Development Industry in Northern Kenya (2025)

Resilient Pastoralism : A Cultural Analysis of Navigating Climate Change, Modernity and the Development Industry in Northern Kenya is Billy Jones’s dissertation from the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University.

The thesis can be found here.

This thesis offers a cultural analysis of climate change, modernisation and sustainable development in the pastoral landscape of Baringo, Northern Kenya. For the majority of the pastoralists living there, life is defined by crippling poverty, ethnic violence and an increasingly erratic and unpredictable climate. In response, a growing number of people have moved away from the traditional reliance on communal pastures and started intensively farming grass on individual farms. Baringo has also been somewhat of a testbed for International Development projects over the past half century. The majority of these, however, have failed. This thesis explores the parallel histories of Baringo’s marginalisation in the national economy and by International Development organisations. What social, political and ecological processes in Kenya and the global economy have led to this marginalisation? In what ways are people using grass farming to help cope with droughts, flooding and economic insecurity? Why have these local adaptations been overlooked by development organisations? And why have so many projects failed to bring sustainable development to the region? The material to answer these questions has been gathered during fieldwork in Baringo, in collaboration with local researchers, through qualitative research methods including interviews, observations and archival research. It consists of fieldnotes, interviews with pastoralists and historical documents from development organisations. The research has been inspired by cultural theories on cultural landscapes and global cultural flows as well as postcolonial perspectives on modernisation and development. The main findings demonstrate that modernisation has contributed to increased poverty, land degradation and ethnic clashes in the region. They also show that grass farming is an inherently flexible mode of production which emerged out of traditional forms of pastoralism as a way to cope with these new hardships. The thesis has also highlighted that pastoralist economic models and ways of thinking have historically been overlooked in global development discourses. As global discourses are translated into tangible projects on the ground in Baringo, they often ignore local solutions, resulting in a landscape littered with abandoned project sites and invasive species.