sief2027: Bolzano, Italy, 3-6 August 2027
Theme: Frontiers: hidden, visible, mobile
SIEF2027 in Bolzano, Italy, 3-6 August 2027 “Frontiers: hidden, visible, mobile” “Frontiers” speak to the current global situation, which is affected by the return of nationalist ideologies, imperialist domination, colonial expansionism and wars. This puts into question the value of tolerance, democracy, and international law, suggesting that these have been illusions. It is timely to address the ambiguities, contradictions and paradoxes embedded in the notion of frontiers, reimagining them to envision and shape a better future for terrestrial life.
Frontiers do not only refer to social boundaries and historical political borders as complex “borderscapes”. They also mean “horizons” of discovery and expansion in both a metaphorical (e.g. the frontiers of science) and a literal sense (the frontiers of colonization). Whether visible or hidden, borderscapes and horizons are inherently mobile in space and time. They remind us of colonial enterprises and violence, as well as of decoloniality as a frontier paradigm.
Starting from these possible understandings of frontiers, SIEF2027 invites ethnologists, folklorists, anthropologists, and scholars from adjacent fields, to explore the many ways of framing visible, hidden and mobile frontiers.
Bozen-Bolzano
Bozen-Bolzano is a multicultural city, with an old and a new town, several histories of migration over time, and three official languages (not to mention the many unofficial ones). It is a place with a troubled history, including a battle over the monuments of rising nationalisms, which Hobsbawm mentioned in his introduction to “The invention of Tradition,” and a critical dissonant heritage of the twentieth century. It is a gateway to the Dolomites, where the Malinowski family made their home in the 1920s, and very close to the “Hidden Frontier” of ethnicity within the Alpine cultural ecology, studied by John Cole and Eric Wolf.
It’s a fantastic place to discuss Ethnology and Folklore, from 3 to 6 August 2027 at unibz –the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
Unibz
The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano is a trilingual university with campuses in the town centre, the requalified industrial area (NOI Techpark), Brixen-Bressanone (Faculty of Education), and Bruneck. It is a highly international academic environment, very much appreciated by students, academics, and administrative staff not only for its academic excellence but also for its human-scale approach. Unibz values diversity, equity, and inclusion, actively embracing differences and fostering encounters.
Congress logo
Credits: Courtesy of Gianluca Camillini, designer and professor of Communication Design Practice & Critique of the Faculty of Design and Art (unibz).
Scientific Committee
Hande Birkalan-Gedik, Goethe University Frankfurt (SIEF Board); Tobias Boos, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Čarna Brković, University of Mainz (SIEF President); Tom DuBois, University of Wisconsin–Madison (SIEF Vice President); Sophie Elpers, Meertens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam & University of Antwerp (SIEF Executive Vice President); Stefan Festini Cucco, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Fabio Mugnaini, University of Siena; Saša Poljak Istenič, ZRC SAZU (SIEF Board); Daniela Salvucci, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (SIEF Board); Elisabeth Tauber, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Dorothy L. Zinn, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
Members of the Local Committee
Tobias Boos, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Francesca Brunet, Centre for Regional History, Geschichte und Region/Storia e regione; Gianpaolo Chiriacó, University of Innsbruck; Stefan Festini Cucco, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Agnese Ghezzi, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Daniele Ietri, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Giovanni Kezich, former Director of the Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina (Trentino Folklife Museum); Waltraud Kofler Engl, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Fabio Mugnaini, University of Siena; Reza Nabibakhsh, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Daniela Salvucci, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (SIEF Board); Vita Santoro, University of Basilicata, SIMBDEA- The Italian Society for Museum and Heritage Anthropology; Caterina Sartori, University of Manchester; Elisabeth Tauber, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; Emanuel Valentin, Franzensfeste-Fortezza Museum; Georg Zeller, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, FAS-Film Association South Tyrol; Dorothy L. Zinn, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.
Co-convenors of the congress
Daniela Salvucci (Faculty of Education, unibz), Elisabeth Tauber (Faculty of Design and Art, unibz), Dorothy L. Zinn (Faculty of Education, unibz).
NomadIT conference management: Carlotta Ottonello, Alix Hargreaves-Brough, Kristjan Lorentson, Website by Eli Bugler.
Unibz Event Management Office Hannes Hell; Franziska Wolfsegger.
Patrocinio: Municipality of Bozen-Bolzano (Comune di Bolzano Stadtgemeinde Bozen)
