22-23 OCTOBER 2015

The Arcticanthropology members are proud to host a session at the 12th Annual ETMU Days Conference, which takes place this year at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland, on 22-23 October 2015.

Dear scholars and arcticanthropology followers,

The call for papers for the 12th Annual ETMU Days Conference is now open. This year’s overarching theme will be “Mobile Roots – Rethinking Indigenous and Transnational ties”.

The ETMU Days bring together researchers from the fields of indigenous studies, ethnicity and migration and create an arena for a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue.

Conference Organisers are the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (ETMU) and the University of Lapland.

We especially invite you to submit your paper to the session “Moving memories: Oral histories about people’s movements across social, temporal/spatial and ideological borders”, which will be chaired by arcticanthropology authors Lukas Allemann and Stephan Dudeck.

Session abstract:

Oral history research among indigenous people in different parts of the circumpolar world revealed certain commonalities when it comes to movement. Storytelling addresses the movement of people in multiple ways. Firstly, people remember physical and social movements (as well as social mobility); secondly, stories and recollections themselves can move among people and places, e.g. between generations, social groups or geographical regions. Lastly, remembrance can as well trigger movement, e.g. move people in an emotional, political or even physical way. Just to name one example, the stories about resettlements of Sami people on the Kola Peninsula in Russia’s North-West move people emotionally but as well literally in the form of a roots tourism to their places of origin, which mobilizes a sense of shared identity and is part of a revitalization movement.

Practices linked with memory and storytelling have the capacity to act (agency) and the ability to change things, a quality which is often used deliberately in order to mobilize people and resources. Social mobility, the movements of memories and the traveling of discourses are closely interconnected. We invite scholars as well as activists who have been collecting oral histories (not only from indigenous people) to contribute to the development of new insights about the interplay of these different aspects of how movements are remembered and remembrance is moving.

The call for papers is open until 31 may 2015.

Please submit your paper proposal up to 300 words through the online form.

CONTACT: Lukas Allemann, PhD Cand., researcher at ORHELIA Project, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, lukas.allemann@ulapland.fi, +358 40 48 444 18.