TRADITION ARCHIVES
NEWS
Tradition Archives Meet Digital Humanities
The upcoming 2nd workshop "Tradition Archives Meet Digital Humanities" calls for proposals! It will be held as part of the DHNB2025 conference in Tartu, Estonia, which takes place from March 5–7, 2025. The workshop itself will be scheduled prior to the main conference, with the exact date to be announced after January 8. As a follow-up to the 2018 workshop held at the DHN2018 conference in Helsinki, this workshop aims to provide a meeting space for researchers, archivists, and technology experts engaged in folklore archives, digital cultural heritage, and digital humanities. The primary goal is to foster an interdisciplinary platform for advancing computational folklore (archival) studies through the exchange of insights, identification of challenges, and promotion of innovative practices.
Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10
International Conference
Riga, Latvia
October 29–31, 2024
From 29 to 31 October, an international research conference “Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10” will take place in Riga. The conference is one of the events of the 100th anniversary year of the Archives of Latvian Folklore. This academic forum will bring together researchers from different fields of the humanities and social sciences to discuss the past of traditional archives and their future perspectives - the past 100 years and the next 10.
The conference is organized by the Archives of Latvian Folklore, ILFA UL, in cooperation with the SIEF Working Group on Archives and the SIEF Working Group on Cultural Heritage and Property as well as in collaboration with Riga City Council. The conference will feature altogether 35 presentations by scholars from 18 countries. The authors of the plenary lectures are Maryna Chernyavska from Canada and Sanita Reinsone from Latvia, ILFA UL.
The conference will also be available to everyone via streaming at https://www.facebook.com/lulfmi and https://www.youtube.com/@LFK1924.
SAMLA.no and the way forward for digital tradition archives in Europe
Bergen, Norway
October 27, 2024
In connection with the launch of the Norwegian digital tradition archive SAMLA.no, a one-day international seminar is organized to celebrate the occasion. The goal of the seminar is to create a forum for engaging discussions on international collaboration and to explore the next steps for preserving cultural heritage in the digital age. The seminar is open to all who are interested in the intersection of technology and cultural preservation.
Archives of Traditional Culture: 100 + 10
International Conference
Riga, Latvia
October 29-31, 2024
Approaching its 100th anniversary, the Archives of Latvian Folklore (1924), in close cooperation with the SIEF Working Group on Archives and the SIEF Working Group on Cultural Heritage and Property, invites contributions for an international conference addressing a diverse range of issues related to present and future of the archives of traditional culture. The centenary is, of course, a good reason to look back and take stock of what has been done, to understand how the histories of archiving have developed in different countries. But what we would like to do even more at this conference is to assess current situations and to look ahead, say, to the next 10 years. Read more
Folklore Archives Webinars - May 2023
May 10, 2023 at 18:00 CET
Siv Gøril Brantzæg, Associate Professor Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
"From tradition to tablet: Constructing a database of Norwegian skilling ballads"
Join Zoom Meeting
Folklore Archives Webinars - March 2023
March 22, 2023 at 18:00 CET
Katherine Borland, Professor & Director of the Center for Folklore Studies & Department of Comparative Studies at the Ohio State University
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, Archivist & Visiting Assistant Professor at the Centre of Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University
"The University Folklore Archives: Institutional or Community Resource?"
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Folklore Archives Webinars - February 2023
February 22, 2023 at 18:00 CET
Christina Crowder, Executive Director, the Klezmer Institute, NY
"Community-Centered Models for Musical Folklore Projects: The Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project and the Klezmer Archive Project"
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SIEF 16th Congress in Brno, Czech Republic
The 16th international SIEF congress will take place in Brno, the second largest city of the Czech Republic, the country, where SIEF forerunner Commission internationale de l’art populaire has been founded. After almost 100 years SIEF returns to Central Europe, a region where many uncertainties worth of ethnological, folklore and related research arises and overlaps for centuries.
Theme: Living Uncertainty
Deadline for the call for papers is January 10, 2023.
Accepted panels: https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2023/programme#all
WG on Archives panels:
Arch05 Documenting and Living Uncertainty in Tradition Archives Today and in the Future
Convenors: Nicolas Le Bigre (Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen) and Cliona O'Carroll (University College Cork)
Arch06 Responsibility, Repair and Representation in Archival Practices
Convenors: Guha Shankar (Library of Congress (USA) and Maryna Chernyavska (University of Alberta)
Turning the Wheel: Access to Archives – Tradition and Variation
Section on University and Research Institution Archives of the International Council on Archives (ICA-SUV) in collaboration with the Working Group on Archives of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF WGoA) are pleased to invite submissions of proposals for the 2023 in-person conference to be hosted on May 29-31, 2023 in Dublin, Ireland, by the University College Dublin. The theme of the conference is:
TURNING THE WHEEL: ACCESS TO ARCHIVES – TRADITION AND VARIATION
We invite academic and/or practice-based proposals for individual papers, panels, discussion tables, and other formats on different aspects of archival practice in university and research institution archives that address the conference theme.
Presentations can relate to any aspect of the theme but we particularly encourage proposals which discuss the following topics:
Who are the users of archives today? How have user audiences changed in the past decade? What are current users’ needs and expectations when accessing archives?
How has access to archives transformed in the digital age? How do different archival institutions approach access? Do you have innovative examples of providing access to archives?
How are cultural and scientific traditions documented and accessed in university and research institution archives?
What records could and should be made accessible online to wide audiences, and what should remain accessible only under certain conditions and why?
What are the possible roles and responsibilities of university archives in relation to smaller research archives, community archives, and other non-conventional archives and archival heritage at large?
Presentations should be 20 minutes and should be analytical rather than purely descriptive. Please note that unfortunately there will be no translation facilities at the conference, so only papers in English will be accepted. Please submit a short abstract of 250-300 words with a bibliography of at least two items, which will not count towards the 250-word minimum along with the following information using this form:
Presentation title
Name(s) of speaker(s)
Job title and institution
Postal address and email address
Short bio (150-200 words)
The ICA-SUV Proposal Submission Guidelines can be consulted here: https://www.ica.org/sites/default/files/suv-confpropsubmguidelines.pdf
The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2023. Authors will be notified by February 1 whether their paper has been accepted. Speakers will be expected to cover their own travel costs.
We look forward to seeing you in Dublin!
Folklore Archives Webinars - January 2023
January 18, 2023 at 18:00-19:30 CET
James Deutsch, Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Washington, D.C., USA
"Festivals as Teaching Tools for Folklore Archives"
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https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/j/95498976413?pwd=TkFDYXZWdjRreGtUTTU1dDlNdkoxdz09
Meeting ID: 954 9897 6413
Passcode: 625111
Folklore Archives Webinars - December 2022
Our next live Folklore Archives Webinars session on 7 of December 2022 at 18:00-19:30:
Dr. Ioannis Karachristos, Senior researcher, Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Academy of Athens
Dr. Paraskevas Potiropoulos, Senior researcher, Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Academy of Athens
"Traditional Folklore archives in the Digital era. Curation and documentation, challenges and prospects in the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre Archive"
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/j/92159776378?pwd=NWRoNUhnbGFGeGVReFlHTG1SUWtOUT09
Meeting ID: 921 5977 6378
Passcode: 752662
Folklore Archives Webinars - November 2022
Our next live Folklore Archives Webinars session on 23 November 2022 at 18:00-19:30:
Mari Sarv, Senior researcher, Estonian Literary Museum, Tartu
Kati Kallio, Senior researcher, Finnish Literature Society and University of Helsinki
"Towards a lab of folklore texts: explorations on Finnic oral poetry"
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/j/95173726242?pwd=QnBueFNjbXN4SytaL1JwQUhRc0Vjdz09
Meeting ID: 951 7372 6242
Passcode: 397225
Folklore Archives Webinars - May 2022
Our next live Folklore Archives Webinars session on 9th of May 2022 at 18:00-19:30:
Tim Tangherlini
Professor, Dept of Scandinavian and the Program in Folklore
University of California, Berkeley
"Multilingual Search and Challenges for the Archive in the 21st Century: Lessons from ISEBEL"
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88308751741?pwd=Q1A1d2JZYW1XY0ltbk1pL2MyU1IzZz09
Meeting ID: 883 0875 1741
Passcode: 453956
Folklore Archives Webinars - April 2022
Our next live Folklore Archives Webinars session on 4th of April 2022 at 18:00-19:30:
Docent, Development manager
Finnish Literature Society
"From genre analysis to examination of everyday narratives. A short history of the vocabulary" uses in the Folklore archives of the Finnish Literature Society
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81577601220?pwd=cEFwZWllcEFxSTdqR3N0UHFGNS9VUT09
Meeting ID: 815 7760 1220
Passcode: 875087
Folklore Archives Webinars - March 2022
Our next live Folklore Archives Webinars on 9th of March 2022 at 18:00-19:30:
Dr. Dani Schrire
The Program for Folklore and Folk-Culture Studies and the Program in Cultural Studies. Director of the Folklore Research Center. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Tom Fogel
The Ephraim E. Urbach Post-Doctoral Fellowship, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. The Folklore Research Center, Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"Negotiating archival media and folklore documentation in a community setting"
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85414933486?pwd=M1FXSnM2NVJtN0s0RGFScHZCdm5LUT09
Online Webinar Series in Partnership With SAMLA
The SIEF Working Group on Archives has partnered with SAMLA to organize a series of online webinars during the academic year of 2021-2022. The first main theme of this year's webinars will be various ethnographic thesauri used to describe materials in tradition archives. The second theme will focus on folklore archives education, which will present the opportunity to discuss the content and format of courses on folklore archives taught around the world, share experiences, and discuss innovative approaches to teaching such courses.
We are pleased to announce our first speaker, Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh och Jonny Dillon (National Folklore Collection, Dublin), who will present with a seminar titled "Folklore vocabularies, classification systems and digital publishing".
It will take place on November 15th, 6 PM (CET) on Zoom: click here for the link.
SAMLA is an infrastructure project aiming to digitalize all the main ethnological and folkloristic archives in Norway, and provide a one-door solution to accessing the material. SAMLA unites three tradition archives: the Folklore Archives at the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Ethnological Research at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, and the Ethno-Folkloristic Archives at the University of Bergen.
Folklore Archiving during Pandemic
Folklore and tradition archives have been busy documenting everyday life and cultural expressions related to the pandemic, as well as continued working on other archival projects. Projects presented in the poster provide a sample of our work. We encourage you to be curious, learn about these projects, and explore them following this link: https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/sief2021-wga/poster
16-06-2021
SIEF2021 in Helsinki: 19-24 June 2021
BREAKING THE RULES? POWER, PARTICIPATION, TRANSGRESSION
Helsinki, Finland, 19-24 June 2021
SIEF2021 time table for the WG on Archives
Time zone: UTC+3
Friday, 18 June
18:00-19:15
*
Archives, access, ethics and fraud [SIEF Working Group on Archives]
Convenors:
Theo Meder (Meertens Institute)
Ave Goršič (Estonian Literary Museum)
Format: Panel
Sessions: Thursday 24 June, 10:00-11:45, 14:00-15:45
https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2021/panels#9531
https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2021/panels#10566
Being bold in the archives: innovative folklore archival practices [SIEF Working Group On Archives]
Convenors:
Maryna Chernyavska (University of Alberta)
Cliona O'Carroll (University College Cork)
Kelly Fitzgerald (University College Dublin)
Format: Panel Roundtable
Sessions: Monday 21 June, 16:15-18:00 (UTC+3)
https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2021/panels#9596
Working Group Archives: Now what? Documenting transnational crises
Convenors:
Fredrik Nilsson (Åbo Akademi University)
Niklas Huldén (Åbo Akademi University)
Karin Gustavsson (Lund University)
Format: Panel
Sessions: Wednesday 23 June, 10:00-11:45, 14:00-15.45
https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2021/panels#9610
https://www.siefhome.org/congresses/sief2021/panels#10574
Ask the Archivist!
SIEF2019 14th Congress "Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World" will take place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain from 14 to 17 April.
SIEF Working Group on Archives will be presented at the poster session on Wednesday at 16.30–18.15, University of Santiago, Faculty of Economics and Business administration, Foyer.
Instead of a usual poster, this year the WG will present ‘Ask the Archivist’ poster. For this, in addition to board members present, we welcome volunteers to stand at the poster and answer archiving related questions. Please apply by e-mail traditionarchives@gmail.com or to WG's co-chairs Maryna Chernyauska or Ave Goršič during the Congress.
10-04-2019
AFS Awards "Visions and Traditions"
The American Folklore Society has announced the award of 2018 Brenda McCallum Prize which seeks to promote works of excellence and innovation that further the cause of preservation, organization, curation, or enhanced public access and use related to folklife archival collections.
The winner of the Brenda McCallum Prize in 2018 is the collective work "Visions and Traditions. Knowledge Production and Tradition Archives" edited by the Network's members Lauri Harvilahti, Audun Kjus, Clíona O'Carrol, Suzanne Österlund-Pötzsch, Fredrik Skott, and Rita Treija.
We congratulate the authors and editors on a work the Committee agreed was forward-looking, cutting edge, and tightly focused on central matters of folklore and folklife archiving, history, theory, and practice. Committee members also saw the work as propelling folklore archives into the modern era of disciplinary shifts by claiming a firm foothold in academic conversations accessible to archivists, folklorists, and folklore-archivists. It also offered numerous interesting case study examples for contemplation. – American Folklore Society / Archives & Libraries Section Prize Committee
Congratulations!
9-04-2019