The autumn conference of the Academic Folklore Society of Estonia. Fieldwork in Changed Circumstances on November 25, 2021

The topic of this year’s fieldwork conference is fieldwork in changed circumstances. The presentations focus on fieldwork in the period of societal change that began in March 2020. There will be discussion on what new or creatively combined opportunities and methods for fieldwork have occurred during this new situation that has prevailed in the world for more than a year and a half now.

One of the topics that is going to be discussed is how researchers who planned to carry out research on the basis of their own collected material and whose planned fieldwork period coincided with travel and movement restrictions solved the situation. If the planned fieldwork had to take place away from home, did a reorientation to some other type of source material take place? In case that fieldwork was still done, then how? How did one manage to find suitable interviewees if it was not possible to travel? How were they interviewed when a face-to-face meeting was not possible? What was the solution if the interviewees did not feel at home in the digital world? How did this type of fieldwork succeed, and what were its advantages and disadvantages compared to “traditional” fieldwork? If the planned fieldwork was to take place at home or in a hometown, what kind of rethinking did it require? Researchers who planned to conduct an observation or participatory observation faced specific challenges. If it was not possible to carry out the (participatory) survey in the planned way, was it frustrating, or did it rather encourage finding unprecedented solutions?

Some topics are related to the challenges of the so-called new era for those researchers who chose a research topic from March 2020 onwards. Times of social upheaval and crisis offer favourable conditions for the spread of folklore. How did one choose the research topic in such an era of folklore outburst and by what methods was the material collected? What new research perspectives opened up? What new discoveries were made about the possibilities of online fieldwork? What difficulties or novel questions and challenges did one face? Were there any changes in the meaning of the fieldwork? We hope that the discussions at the conference will also allow us to better prepare for future fieldwork.

Program
25th of November 2021
at the University of Tartu Library (room Tõstamaa) and via the Internet

10.05-10.15 opening

10.15-10.45 Reet Hiiemäe, “Eksootilised“ välitööd globaliseeruvas maailmas: väljakutsed ja õppetunnid

10.45-11.15 Pihla Maria Siim, Tagasipöördujate veebiintervjuud

11.15-11.45 Anu Korb, Mängukirjelduste kogumisest Venemaa eesti kogukondades ja emamaale naasnud eestlaste juures

11.45-12.15 Saara Mildeberg, Vältimatud pahed ja välitööd hüljatud maastikel

12.15-13.15 lunch

13.15-13.45 Anastasiya Fiadotava, Digital Folklore and Digital Fieldwork: Combining Methods and Transforming the Discipline?

13.45-14.15 Michele Tita, Re-adjusting to “Normality” during Fieldwork in the Italian Alps

14.15-14.45 Kareng Ronghangpi, Fieldwork in Changed Circumstances through the Case Study on Nihu Kachiri

14.45-15.15 coffee break

15.15-15.45 Rahul Koonathara and Atul Sinha, A Critical Examination of Shift in Various Processes of Folklore Transmission of Tholpavakoothu during the Pandemic

15.45-16.15 Progoti Chetana Bakshi, Ramayana Studies: Importance of Fieldwork for Searching Ramayana-related Epigraphy and Inscriptions

16.15-16.45 Nabyendu Roy Choudhury, Bengali Baoul Song: a Field Study

16.45-17.00 concluding words

Abstracts

You are welcome to join us in Microsoft Teams.

Information: Reet Hiiemäe (reet.hiiemae@folklore.ee) and Merili Metsvahi (merili.metsvahi@ut.ee).

Conference is organised by the Academic Folklore Society, together with Estonian Reseach Council project Performative negotiations of belonging in contemporary Estonia (PUT PSG48), Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore.