International Conference of Young Folklorists "Vernacular Expressions and Analytic Categories" May 14.-16. 2013

International Conference organised by the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu, and the Tartu Nefa Group in partnership with the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius and the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory.

The 3rd International Conference of Young Folklorists continues the tradition of annual meetings of young folklorists established by the Departments of Estonian and Comparative Folklore and Ethnology, University of Tartu in May 2011 and carried on by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in April 2012. The conference aims to foster academic communication, collaboration and research in the field of folklore by bringing together advanced students and recently graduated scholars from different countries and giving them an opportunity to present their research to an international audience. As an English-language forum, this meeting complements the tradition of annual Estonian-language conferences of young scholars of folk culture, which goes back to 1974 and has been enjoying growing popularity since 2006 when ethnologist and folklorists joined forces to establish Noorte hääled, a conference representing "the voices of young scholars". The International Conference of Young Folklorists has grown significantly since the first meeting in 2011, a one-day event with 12 presentations. The programme of the 2013 conference extends over three days and features 30 presenters from 11 countries (Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, UK) as well as two keynote lecturers: Dr. Eike Anderson (Bournemouth University, UK) and Dr. Eli Yassif (Tel Aviv University, Israel). While graduate students and scholars of folklore, ethnology and ethnomusicology make up the core of participants, neighbouring fields of study are represented as well. The theme of this year's conference 'Vernacular Expressions and Analytic Categories' concentrates on the interfaces between scholars and those whose creative expressions we study. The aim of the conference is to explore power relations between scholars and 'the folk', the distinction between etic and emic categories, exchanges and confrontations between vernacular and scholarly expressions and categories, the shifting of the researcher's role from enquirer to interpreter. The conference also studies the relationship between national research traditions and international folkloristics as well as regional and ethnic dominants of research - the unity and diversity of folkloristic research. Presenters use the general topic of the meeting to discuss their current research, data and fieldwork experiences, covering a wide range of folk narrative genres and forms of vernacular expression: urban legends, folktales, dreams and dream narratives, personal experience narratives, folk music, ethnochoreology, folk beliefs and alternative healing practices. For more information, please contact conference secretaries Judit Kis-Halas and Pihla Maria Siim by e-mail (youngfolklorists@gmail.comSee e-posti aadress on kaitstud spämmirobotide vastu. E-posti aadressi nägemiseks peab olema JavaSkripti kasutamine olema lubatud. document.write(''); ; tel. +372 737 6256). Conference timetable