Folklore, Geography and Environment: Ways of Knowing Water, Landscape and Climate in the Anthropocene
A Folklore Society conference
14-16 July 2023, The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, UK, and online.
CFP Deadline: 31 January 2023: contact thefolkloresociety@gmail.com
Scientific knowledge tells us that the Anthropocene's climate crisis will bring huge changes to the way that water flows in, around and alongside landscape. Sea levels may rise up to 1.1m by 2100, with substantially higher rises likely if Antarctic ice-melt increases (IPCC, 2019). Taken together with increasing severity and frequency of extreme coastal flooding and weather events, it is clear that our relationships with water in the landscape—both in excess and scarcity—face an unprecedented challenge.
This hybrid conference responds to that challenge in two ways.
Firstly, it asks what other kinds of knowledge might inform our responses to the challenge of increasingly volatile relationships with water: what can anthropologists, folklorists and human geographers tell flood and climate science about human/water/landscape relationships?
Secondly, it asks how we can make that other knowledge intelligible to mainstream climate and flood science: how is knowledge about the human/water/landscape relationship co-produced and reproduced? What distinctive perspectives can scholarship from outside the physical geo-sciences bring to the urgent need to develop realistic, Anthropocene-ready resilience strategies?
We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary papers bringing together folklore studies, anthropology and geography. Topics could include (but are not limited to):
- Cryptozoology, belief, custom and tradition
- Toponymics/hydronymics and historical geographies
- Water activism and guardianship
- Water cultures
- Cultural/historical geography
- Community co-production models
- Place-legends and place-making
- Anthropology of water and flooding
- Risk and resilience
- Culture and Climate Migration
- Climate Impacts on Social (In)Justice
- Environmental memory
- Maritime traditions and coastal culture
- Expressive culture—songs and stories of water
- Folk belief and the environment
- Vernacular architecture and rising tides
- Flood stories
- Traditions under threat from climate change
Proposals for Papers: Please email the following items to thefolkloresociety@gmail.com and copy to k.smith7@hull.ac.uk by the deadline of 31 January 2023:
- a proposal (maximum 200 words) for a 20-minute presentation
- a brief biographical note including your affiliation, if any
- whether you wish to present a paper in person or online
Prospective speakers will be informed by 28 February if their paper has been accepted or not.
We also welcome proposals for Posters from Students and Early Career Researchers illustrating their work in progress, in digital images and captions.
Venue: This will be a hybrid conference, taking place at The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE, and online.
Conference Fees: All participants are expected to pay the conference fees:
In Person participants
Standard Rate: Full conference £140.00, or Day Rates: Friday £45 / Saturday £90 / Sunday £45
Concessionary Rate (Speakers, Folklore Society Members, Students, Seniors): Full conference: £90.00, or Day Rates: Friday £35 / Saturday £50 / Sunday £35
Online participants
Standard Rate: Full conference: £90.00, or Day Rates: Friday £35 / Saturday £60 / Sunday £35
Concessionary Rate (Speakers, Folklore Society Members, Students, Seniors): Full conference £70.00, or Day Rates: Friday £25 / Saturday £40 / Sunday £25
Booking and Registration: contact thefolkloresociety@gmail.com for details
Catering: The in-person conference fee includes teas/coffees between sessions. Other meals are not provided.
Accommodation is not provided but we can suggest the names of various hotels in Hull city centre.
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