SIEF Talk: Meet the Authors
SIEF is pleased to invite you to its first “Meet the Authors” talk.
The topic of the conversation will be the book “Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North" (Washington University Press) by Thomas A. DuBois and Coppélie Cocq. The discussant will be Krister Stoor (Umeå University).
The talk will take place on Zoom, Wednesday, 14 October 2026, at 6 pm CET (Berlin).
Please use this registration link to sign-up for the talk .
About the book Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North
Digital media–GIFs, films, TED Talks, tweets, and more–have become integral to daily life and, unsurprisingly, to Indigenous people’s strategies for addressing the historical and ongoing effects of colonization. In Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North, Thomas DuBois and Coppélie Cocq examine how Sámi people of Norway, Finland, and Sweden use media to advance a social, cultural, and political agenda anchored in notions of cultural continuity and self-determination. Beginning in the 1970s, Sámi have used Sámi-language media—including commercially produced musical recordings, feature and documentary films, books of literature and poetry, and magazines—to communicate a sense of identity both within the Sámi community and within broader Nordic and international arenas.
In more contemporary contexts—from YouTube music videos that combine rock and joik (a traditional Sámi musical genre) to Twitter hashtags that publicize protests against mining projects in Sámi lands—Sámi activists, artists, and cultural workers have used the media to undo layers of ignorance surrounding Sámi livelihoods and rights to self-determination. Downloadable songs, music festivals, films, videos, social media posts, images, and tweets are just some of the diverse media through which Sámi activists transform how Nordic majority populations view and understand Sámi minority communities and, more globally, how modern states regard and treat Indigenous populations.
About the Meet the Authors series
Guided by its mission to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion among scholars in ethnology and folklore, SIEF facilitates scholarly exchanges, respecting the richness of diverse academic traditions, promoting dialogue and encouraging change. It strives to create a welcoming space for underrepresented and racialized communities and scholars from all corners of Europe and the world.
Building upon the success of its previous online seminars, SIEF is initiating the “Meet the Authors” online forum. Bringing together diverse researchers, teachers, students, archivists, as well as museum and heritage professionals to discuss selected books with their authors, SIEF invites its members to reflect together on the role of ethnological and folkloristic knowledge in the changing world.
