UPCOMING EVENTS

2026 WG FAEF Workshop ‘Embodiment Revisited’
Helsinki, 13–15 August 2026

Our next interim workshop will take place from 13 – 15 August 2026 in Helsinki and focus on the theme of revisiting embodiment. Although embodiment has long been a central concern of feminist theory, we consider the topic as it intersects with feminist theory to be unfinished business. During this two-day workshop, we will revisit the concept and its uses for feminist theory. The workshop will be over two days, with opening lectures each morning and afternoon, followed by “break out” groups on a specific sub-topic. Are you interested in joining us? Have a look at our call for applications and submit your application!

Important deadlines:
Deadline for applications: 1 February 2026
Response date for acceptance/rejection of application: 13 March 2026
Deadline to circulate your full concept paper to all workshop participants: 1 July 2026

Download Workshop Theme: Embodiment Revisited (PDF)

About the zoom-discussions

Despite its long history, feminist scholarship continues to be marginalized within academia. As a result, too often the knowledge that is produced within these texts is ignored, not taken seriously, or simply forgotten about. In an attempt to remedy this process of forgetting and ignoring, the working group Feminist Approaches to Ethnology and Folklore hosts online reading sessions via zoom. Every two months its members come together to discuss an article that can in some way be considered seminal for the history, development or state of the art of feminist scholarship ranging from early work to recent publications. Readings can focus on feminist theory, but can also include contributions that exemplify a use of method or a subject or theme that is particularly relevant to feminist scholarship. Our discussions focus on what these texts can teach us. What can we learn from these texts in terms of the uses, abuses, and potential of feminist theory and approaches? And how can these texts inspire our own contributions to the field?

We always aim for lively debates and want these online sessions to contribute towards building an international community of feminist scholars sharing their thoughts, questions and insights. For the year 2025-2026, the zoom-discussions will be tailored towards our workshop in August and focus on the theme of embodiment. For the latest information regarding the zoom sessions dates, times and readings please consult our Facebook page.

PAST EVENTS

SIEF WG in Feminist Approaches Interim Meeting
August 23th-25th 2024, Hólmavík, Iceland
The workshop will be 2.5 days in person, followed by our WG annual meeting which we'll open up on zoom for all members

“Woman” on the edge

Our meeting takes place in the remote north of Iceland, itself located at Europe’s furthest periphery. Iceland is constantly in a state of geological, geographical and meteorological precarity on the edge -- engendering an instability that contributes to unstable descriptions and impressions. Hólmavik, at its northern periphery is doubly “on the edge.” We are hosted by the Univ. of Iceland’s Research Center in Hólmavik, and by the Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft, which resonates with yet another kind of precarity -- of those outside of society, shunned, avoided, and perhaps in contact with the supernatural. Our fields themselves are precarious in academia. And the status of “woman” has been historically (and in academia and the production of knowledge) peripheral, subordinate, and precarious, despite the paradoxical centrality of “woman” to the integrity of the family, the foundation of said society.
Read more here >>

Due dates
Abstracts: Nov. 15
Decisions on the proposals and open Registration will be in early February
Readings for Concept Pieces: March 25
Working papers to be distributed: May 25th