Folklore, Geography and Environment: Ways of Knowing Water, Landscape and Climate in the Anthropocene

Caroline Oates's picture
Type: 
Call for Papers
Date: 
July 14, 2023 to July 16, 2023
Location: 
United Kingdom
Subject Fields: 
Anthropology, Environmental History / Studies, Geography, Maritime History / Studies, Oral History

Hybrid conference of The Folklore Society: 14-16 July 2023, online and in person at The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, UK.

The conference will explore our changing relationships with water in the landscape in the light of the mounting frequency of extreme weather events, and consider the following questions:

  • 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 scientists about human/water/landscape relationships? 

  • 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?

Presentation themes: We invite proposals for papers on folklore, water and landscape, including, but not limited to

  • Flood traditions and stories

  • Maritime traditions and coastal culture

  • Water cultures

  • Anthropology of water and flooding

  • Cryptozoology, belief, custom and tradition

  • Environmental memory

  • Toponymics/hydronymics and historical geographies

  • Water activism and guardianship

  • Cultural/historical geography

  • Community co-production models

  • Place-legends and place-making

  • Risk and resilience

  • Culture and Climate Migration

  • Climate Impacts on Social (In)Justice

  • Expressive culture—songs and stories of water

  • Folk belief and the environment

  • Vernacular architecture and rising tides

  • Traditions under threat from climate change

Call for Papers Deadline: 31 January 2023

Proposals for Papers: please email the following items to thefolkloresociety@gmail.com and copy to k.smith7@hull.ac.uk by 31 January

  1. a proposal (max 200 words) for a 20-minute presentation

  2. a brief biographical note including your affiliation (if any)

  3. whether you wish to present a paper in person or online 

Prospective speakers will be informed by 28 February 2023 whether their proposal is accepted or not. 

We also welcome proposals for Posters from students and early career researchers illustrating their work in progress, in digital images with captions. 

Venue: online, and The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE, UK, 

Date: Friday 14th to Sunday 16th July 2023

Conference Fees: All participants are expected to pay the conference fees: 

In Person Participants:

Standard rate: Full conference: £140.00; or, Day Rates: Friday: £45.00 / Saturday: £90.00 / Sunday: £45.00

Concessionary Rate (Speakers, Folklore Society members, Students, Seniors): Full conference: £90.00, or Day Rates: Friday: £35.00 / Saturday: £50.00 / Sunday: £35.00

Online Participants

Standard Rate: Full conference: £90.00, or Day Rates: Friday: £35.00 / Saturday: £60.00 / Sunday: £35.00
Concessionary Rate (Speakers, Folklore Society members, Students, Seniors): Full conference: £70.00, or Day Rates: Friday: £25.00 / Saturday: £40.00 / Sunday: £25.00

Booking and Registration: contact thefolkloresociety@gmail.com for details

Catering: the in-person conference fee includes tea/coffee between sessions. Other meals are not provided. 

Accommodation: is not provided but we can suggest the names of various hotels in Hull city centre.  

Contact Info: 

The Folklore Society