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The Standing Committee on Higher Education in Ethnology and Folklore

Higher education represents an arena that brings together a great number of SIEF members. As a platform that engages both professors and students in producing and sharing knowledge, it enables and enthuses ethnology and folklore studies. That is why the SIEF board considers the strengthening of cooperation in higher education as one of its major strategic goals. Several steps have been taken in that direction, which include designing an interactive map of university departments and programmes in our fields in Europe, establishing the SIEF summer school, etc. The first coordination meeting for the representatives of university departments was organized during the SIEF2015 congress in Zagreb, with the aim of providing a space for exchanging ideas about the potential and challenges in contemporary higher education. At the meeting, quite a few SIEF members participated in a constructive discussion about ways of securing the sustainability and visibility of the departments and programmes of Ethnology and Folklore. They expressed their support for building a network of departments, under the auspices of SIEF. Based on that initiative, the Standing Committee on Higher Education in Ethnology and Folklore was appointed in January 2016.

Members of the committee are as follows:
Nevena Škrbić Alempijević, coordinator, University of Zagreb
Laurent Fournier, University of Aix-Marseille
Fabio Mugnaini, University of Siena
Cliona O'Carroll, University College Cork
Thomas O'Dell, University of Lund
Alexandra Schwell, University of Hamburg
Hanna Snellman, University of Helsinki
Helena Tužinska, Comenius University in Bratislava

The Committee's goals and activities are:

  • to coordinate a network of university departments and programmes in ethnology and folklore
  • to facilitate cooperation and exchange of information and ideas in this domain
  • to collect information about existing networks, joint courses and programmes in the fields, and about modalities of starting new ones
  • to organize coordination meetings of representatives of university departments at SIEF congresses

    • We cordially invite all SIEF members interested in higher education issues to attend coordination meetings of departmental representatives at SIEF congresses. Also, if you have ideas about the network’s future activities, please contact the coordinator of the Standing Committee: nskrbic(at)ffzg.hr.