Digital Folklore hybrid conference

Digital Folklore

The Folklore Society’s Annual Conference, a hybrid conference in collaboration with the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London

Friday 28 to Sunday 30 June 2024

Online and at King’s College London, Strand, London WC2B 4BG, UK

Digital and networked technologies offer a wealth of new modes of folklore genre, performance and transmission. Digital folklore has accelerated in recent decades with the increased popularity of the internet and social media platforms, yet emerged much earlier in the 1970s with the introduction of new technologies such as the photocopier and, latterly, email, to the workplace. Alongside these new folklore forms, the digital has given rise to the emergence of new communities and the development of new ways of ‘doing folklore’. Digital folklore has thus greatly added to, challenged and disrupted folklore studies. This conference explores various aspects of digital folklore, ranging from forms, transmission and communities to the methods and approaches of undertaking folklore studies of digital vernacular culture.

The conference will cover various aspects of historical and contemporary digital folklore including, but not limited to, topics such as the following:

• Digital culture and communities
• Folklore and social media
• Digital folklore genres (e.g. photocopylore, email chains, creepypasta and internet legends, memes, rumours, and conspiracy theories)
• Transference of ‘analogue’ customs and traditions to online contexts
• Digital folklore enacted offline
• Digital vernacular language and communication
• Politicisation of folklore and folklorisation of political rhetoric in/through digital contexts
• The reassessment of folklore definitions and conceptualisations of ‘the folk’
• The development of new theories, methods and approaches in folklore studies as a result of the development and study of digital folklore
• AI and its implications for folklore studies

Conference fees and Registration: Reduced rates apply to: Conference speakers; Folklore Society members; Seniors; Students; Unwaged/Low Earner.  Free for: Student speakers; Kings College London students; Kings College staff attending online (£30 in person)

In-person participants: Full conference: £110 reduced rate; £160 standard rate. Day rates also available: Contact us for details

To register: Download the Booking Form here

Online participants: Full conference: £80 reduced rate with Promo Code; £100 standard rate. Day rates also available: Contact us for details

To register, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-folklore-hybrid-conference-tickets-837543654617?

To get the Promo code for reduced rate online tickets: log in to the Folklore Society Members area at https://folklore-society.com/members-only or email us at https://folklore-society.com/about/contact/