Folklore Without Borders: November Meeting
14-15 November 2024
Online and at 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT
The Folklore Society are hosting a two-day symposium for the Folklore Without Borders research network on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 November.
The symposium will be blended and take place online and in person at the Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Fitzroy St, London W1T 5BT.
Anyone can attend and there is no charge. In-person places are limited.
If you are interested in attending, either in-person or online, you are asked to join the network by emailing the organisers: m.cheeseman@derby.ac.uk or p.cowdell@herts.ac.uk.
The network aims to embed greater equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within UK folklore. The two-day symposium will think about diversity, heritage and the cultural industries as well as considering what the network has achieved, and what will happen to it after the funding, from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, ends in December.
Folklore Without Borders is convened by FLS Council members Prof. Matthew Cheeseman and Dr Paul Cowdell. It welcomes international members, but is focused on the UK. It thinks of UK folklore as an assemblage collecting researchers, practitioners, creative industry professionals, entrepreneurs and communicators, all working across three domains: academia (researchers, teachers), independent stakeholders (practitioners, artists, writers; entrepreneurs) and cultural industries (museums, galleries, archives; media). The network seeks to understand and share the cultural value of folklore. How can the perception of folklore as something available to and practised by all groups enter the practice of those who work with folklore in the UK?
The network’s project partners are the Folklore Society and the American Folklore Society, alongside the Folklore Library and Archive and the Folklore Museums Network. Representatives from all these organisations will be present at the meeting.
For more information on Folklore Without Borders, to join the network, and to book for 14-15 November, email the organisers: m.cheeseman@derby.ac.uk or p.cowdell@herts.ac.uk.
The convenors will be particularly interested if you know of, or have examples of diversity, equity and inclusion in UK folklore.