If you want more information or would like to be involved in planning
the American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, scheduled for
17-21 October 2001 in Anchorage, Alaska, please contact:
Amy Craver
Alaska Native Science Commission
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
Phone: 907/786-7736
Email: anajc [at] uaa.alaska.edu
AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING
"PARTNERS IN KNOWLEDGE"
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
17-21 OCTOBER 2001
CALL FOR PAPERS
ABSTRACT DEADLINE is: 16 April 2001 - for papers, organized panels,
films and videos, and poster presentations (NOTE: Registration waivers
are available.)
This year's theme, "Partners in Knowledge," invokes two concerns that
lie at the heart of northern social science scholarship and practice.
The first points to new ways of establishing and enacting partnerships,
moving toward a practice that highlights collaboration and dialogue. The
second concern refers to our understandings of the nature of knowledge,
challenging us to reflect on different worlds of knowing and the ways
that they're granted legitimacy. Together these issues invite us to
rethink our roles as creators, receivers, presenters, and partners in
the production of knowledge.
To speak of knowledge is to talk not only of ways of knowing, but also
how knowledge gains authority and legitimacy. This, in turn, leads us to
consider what gets defined as "knowledge," who does this defining, and
who benefits from the knowledge. Questions of intellectual property
rights, and of the colonization and commoditization of knowledge, rise
to the fore.
Conflicts over the ownership and legitimization of knowledge all point
to the need for new modes of partnering, where research emerges as a
fully shared endeavor. Collaboration becomes the keyword here, pressing
toward shared voices, authority, and goals. Collaboration can take many
forms. It can unfold with those who are our consultants; with those for
whom we serve as consultants; with colleagues in other disciplines; with
public, private, and community-based organizations; with others within
our own discipline (for example, between academic and public folklorists
or anthropologists). The key lies in collaborating from positions of
equality, while struggling to recognize the biases and presumptions that
have historically undermined such sharing.
Alaska is a particularly appropriate site for discussing the nature of
scholar-to-audience collaboration. In addition to folklorists, we
encourage educators, cultural preservationists, oral historians, arts
administrators, community scholars, and other partners in collaborative
ventures to attend the meeting, and to offer their perspectives on the
conference theme. Given that many of the issues being addressed in
Alaskan cultural programs parallel those in other circumpolar countries,
the 2001 meetings should be particularly relevant to international
scholars of the far north.
In addition to the conference theme, "Partners in Knowledge," papers and
panels addressing other topics are also welcome. Possible topics
include:
Museum Studies
Cultural tourism
Traditional Medicine
Traditional Knowledge
Community Scholars/Tradition Bearers
Multi-cultural curriculum design
Intellectual Property Rights and Ethics
Religion/belief systems
Ethnohistory
Ethnomusicology
Human/Environmental Interactions
Traditional Foods
Material Culture and Folk Arts
Issues of Identity
Politics of Culture
Sense of Place
Global Studies
Narrative Research
Oral History
Community based research
Cultural Preservation
Abstract deadline for papers, organized panels, films and videos, and
poster presentations is 16 April 2001. Registration waivers are available.
For registration forms and more information on submissions go to
http://www.afsnet.org/annualmeet
Films and Videotape Presentations:
This year, the Meeting Committee wants to integrate film and video into
the general session schedule as fully as possible.
If you need more information or would like to be involved in planning
the American Folklore Society Anchorage 2001 Meeting, please contact:
Amy Craver
Alaska Native Science Commission
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
Phone: 907/786-7736
Email: anajc [at] uaa.alaska.edu