1. Invitation to Vote on Proposed Bylaw Changes

President Čarna Brković invites members to vote and share their opinions on the proposed SIEF Bylaw changes.

2. SIEF2027 in Bolzano, Italy, 3-6 August 2027

We look forward to meeting you at unibz – the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.

3. SIEF History and Its Historians

Hande Birkalan-Gedik has been appointed SIEF Historian at the Board meeting in Amsterdam, 2026. Her research focuses on uncovering marginalized voices while exploring SIEF’s institutional histories and making them accessible through collaborative and creative outputs.

4. New Sister Organization

SIEF is happy to announce that the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR) is now a sister organization of SIEF.

5. New Working Group: Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity

The new Working Group on Folk Arts and Vernacular Creativity invites scholars and students to join the mailing list to engage with its activities. The WG also reports on the conference on Problematics of Folk Art in the Contemporary World at the University of Lund, 23 – 24 April 2026.

6. SIEF Insights: How and Why DEI Matters in Ethnology and Folklore

The article “How and Why DEI Matters in Ethnology and Folklore,” by Marie Sandberg, Čarna Brković, and Dani Schrire, has been published in the latest issue of the Journal of American Folklore (JAF, 139, 552 (2026)).

7. Working Group on Archives

The Archives WG announces the upcoming International Conference Tradition archives in motion: sounding out good practices and challenges with folk collections, Freiburg, Germany, 29 June – 1 July 2026.

8. Working Group on Cultural Heritage and Property

The WG reports on heritage related activities.

9. Working Group on Feminist Approaches to Ethnology and Folklore

The WG announces the next interim meeting taking place in Helsinki, Finland, 13 – 15 August 2026, as well as a special issue of Cultural Analysis expected in late summer/fall 2027.

10. Francophone Working Group and Working Group on The Ritual Year

The Francophone WG and WG on The Ritual Year announce the upcoming conference: RI-NA-RI-CA (Ritualizing Nature, Ritualizing Care) taking place at the Campus Carlone, University Côte d’Azur, Nice, France, 24-27 October 2026.

11. Working Group on Museums, Material Culture and Communities of Practices

The WG on Museums, Material Culture and Communities of Practices announces its new name and mission.

12. Working Group on Narrative Cultures

The WG on Narrative Cultures announces the online summer course From Tales to Memes: Traditional Narratives in Digital Culture.

13. Working Group on The Ritual Year

The WG reports on its seasonal webinars #17, #18 along with its new publication: City Rituals 13, 1 (2024) and other conferences organized by its members.

14. Working Group on Place Wisdom

The latest book arising from the WG on Place Wisdom, Creative Perspectives on Sustainable Nature–Culture Relationships, edited by Ullrich Kockel, Riina Haanpää, Mairéad Nic Craith and Katriina Siivonen, is due to be published as part of the Routledge Studies in Culture and Sustainable Development series.

15. Call for Scholarship Applications

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice offers 9 residential scholarships to PhD students and postdoc students interested in spending two months in Venice at the Vittore Branca International Center for the Study of Italian Culture between January and December 2027.

16. Call for Papers

Call for Papers for the first International Congress of Studies on Popular Cultures in Greece and Rome from II Millennium BCE to Modern Folklore.

17. Upcoming conferences 

Young Folklorists (YOFO) conference Transcending Boundaries, Connecting Worlds, The Folklore Society’s annual conference Folklore on the Move, Roundtable and Post-Conference Workshop Knowledge networks for teaching resilience and academic freedom in European Ethnology/Cultural Anthropology/Empirical Cultural Studies/Folklore Studies across Europe. For more information see the PDF of the SIEF Newsletter.

18. Call for Publications 

Open Theology's Special Issue Religious Art and Power – Contestations and Affirmations
Deadline: 15 September 2026
Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture: Language and Their Intangible Heritage
Deadline: 31 December 2026
Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture: Collections of Identities and Topographies of Counter-Memory
Deadline: 30 November 2026
Ethnologia Fennica issue 1/27: Ethnological and Cultural Approaches to Nature
Deadline: 30 June 2026
For more information see the PDF of the SIEF Newsletter.

19. New Journal

This summer, Crafts (ISSN 3042-8718) will be launched, a peer-reviewed, open access scholarly journal that publishes on all aspects of craft research.

20. SIEF Journals

Published: Cultural Analysis 24,1 (2026): Translation in/of Folklore Studies: Perspectives from East Asia
Forthcoming: Ethnologia Europaea 56,1 (2026)

21. New Publications: Journal Issues & Books 

For more information about new publications, please see the PDF of the SIEF Newsletter.

22. Obituaries

SIEF mourns the passing of Ekaterina Anastasova (1962 – 2025) and Ueli Gyr (1945 – 2026).