The #ScienceForUkraine initiative
The #ScienceForUkraine initiative is underway on Twitter Account @Sci_for_Ukraine. It is collecting information and tweeting about the help universities and research institutions offer to students and researchers from #Ukraine. Please use #ScienceForUkraine hashtag on Twitter to help us to find your tweet!
To join the initiative, please visit the website: https://scienceforukraine.eu/, where the latest offers for Ukrainian students and researchers appear. Also visit the Twitter account @Sci_for_Ukraine, which publishes help offers from different countries.
There are a variety of ways in which you can help and even the smallest support makes a difference. The listings collected in our database contain following offers (often a combination of them):
- Accomodation in a dormitory or institution guest quarters
- Office space
- Computer with internet access
- Access to library and/or lab facilities
- Scholarship/stipend
- Research visit
- Part time/full time employment
- Support for accompanying family members
Please note that what we are collecting here are offers directed specifically to scholars fleeing Ukraine, not general calls or programmes where everyone else can apply.
The initiative was initiated by researcher Sanita Reinsone from the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia. Read Yvan Pandele story on how initiative began "Meet the Latvian scholar rallying support for Ukrainian researchers".
Language and Culture in the Digital Age
On 30 March 2022, the 80th International Scientific Conference of the University of Latvia will host the session "Language and Culture in the Digital Age".
Let's start the new year with new research: a special issue of the journal ''Letonica'' has been published
We are pleased to announce that the 43rd issue of the journal Letonica has been published with a focus on the disciplinary history of folkloristics and related fields through the theoretical approaches of post-socialism and post-colonialism. The issue includes five articles – four of them are by Latvian researchers: Toms Ķencis, Anete Karlsone, llze Boldāne-Zeļenkova, Rita Grīnvalde and Rita Legčiļina-Broka, and they are joined by Ukrainian scholars Pavlo Artymyshyn and Roman Holyk. The issue is in English, on open access and is available here.
The guest editors of the issue are Toms Ķencis and Digne Ūdre.
New project "Folklore Revival in Latvia: Resources, Ideologies and Practices"
From 2022 to 2024, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art will implement the Latvian Council of Science's fundamental and applied research project "Folklore Revival in Latvia: Resources, Ideologies and Practices" (led by Ieva Tihovska).
CANONICAL AND NON-CANONICAL IN CHARMING TEXTS AND PRACTICES
The 2022 conference of the ISFNR Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming 6–9 September 2022, Riga (Latvia)
Anšlavs Eglītis' plays written in America and their fates
Viktors Hausmanis, academician, long-time researcher and former director of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art at the University of Latvia, celebrated his 90th birthday on 6 December. On 16 December, the latest book of V. Hausmanis "Anšlavs Eglītis' Plays Written in America and Their Fates" was opened at the jubilee celebration.
The new ILFA Scientific Council is elected
On 8 December, a new Scientific Council was elected at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, which will serve for five years. Dace Bula, Jānis Daugavietis, Ieva Garda-Rozenberga, Rita Grīnvalde, Benedikts Kalnačs, Toms Ķencis, Edīte Leščinska, Jānis Oga, Jānis Ozoliņš, Ieva Tihovska and Kārlis Vērdiņš were elected to the Scientific Council.
International conference "Theatrum Libri: The Press, Reading and Dissemination in Early Modern Europe"
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From 1 to 3 December, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will host the international conference "Theatrum Libri: The Press, Reading and Dissemination in Early Modern Europe", dedicated to the centenary of the Archives of the Republic of Lithuania.
CONFERENCE ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE IN PARIS
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On 25 and 26 November, an international conference on "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Intangible Cultural Heritage" takes place in Paris. The conference has been postponed several times and is now held in a mixed mode - in person and remotely. It is organised in the framework of the project "Qualifying and Disqualifying Intangible Cultural Heritage: Sites for Decision-Making" (2020-2021) supported by the Latvian-French cooperation programme Osmosis. The project's lead institution in Latvia is the Latvian Academy of Culture, with Dace Bula and Digne Ūdre from the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Arts of the University of Latvia. Dace Bula is also a participant of the conference, and in her paper she will analyse how the concept of intangible cultural heritage has been used in Latvian science policy documents.
Researchers attend the 53rd ASEEES conference
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The 53rd Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Conference on Diversity, Intersectionality, Interdisciplinarity will take place in person from 18-21 November and remotely from 1-3 December. Three researchers from the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Arts of the University of Latvia are participating in the conference: researcher Jānis Ozoliņš will present a paper "'She is Not a Woman, She is an Executive Director!': The Representations of Straight Female Masculinity in the Soviet Films of the Era of Stagnation", researcher Kārlis Vērdiņš with the paper "Femininity, Self-orientalization, and Canonization of Pseudo-antiquity: The Latvian Afterlife of Les chansons de Bilitis by Pierre Louÿs", and researcher Jānis Oga with the paper "Latvian Writers’ Travels to West Germany in the Brezhnev Era: Opportunities and Unpredictability" (postdoctoral research project Nr.1.1.1.2/VIAA/3/19/482).
International Conference Dedicated to Writer Regīna Ezera
On 3rd and 4th December, the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia in collaboration with the National Library of Latvia will be holding an extensive virtual conference “Regīna Ezera and Eastern European Literature”. The programme will include in-depth and wide-ranging lectures by foreign guests, panel discussions featuring renowned writers and theatre professionals as well as presentations of academic papers by local and guest researchers. The conference will be taking place online and available to viewers on Facebook and other websites. The first day of the conference will mainly address the life and work of women writers, contemporaries of Regīna Ezera in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, while on the second day, the discourse will be focused on Ezera's literary legacy and interpretations of her works in film and theatre.
Read more...BALTEHUMS 2021
Second Baltic Conference for the Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences (BALTEHUMS) takes place on November 1 and 2. These days the conference takes place remotely from Tallinn University and is organized by the Estonian Centre for Environmental History. Dace Bula, the leading researcher of Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, is participating in the conference with a study on the environmental experience stories documented in the project "Living Next to the Port".
The 8th Baltic Student Conference “Bridges in the Baltics”
The 8th Baltic Student Conference “Bridges in the Baltics” is back this year and it is a hybrid! In 2021 it is organized in two formats: on campus and online. The conference will be held on October 22–23, 2021 at Vilnius University. Its aim is to bring together students whose studies and research focus on the languages or culture of the three Baltic States, to give them the possibility to meet their peers from other countries and universities, to present their academic work and interests, to learn from each other and to make new contacts. The conference welcomes everyone who is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD degree at any university in the Baltic States or elsewhere.
Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art is represented by Kārlis Vērdiņš with plenary speach "Canonization Post Factum: Baltic Fiction in Central European Classics Series”, and Madara Eversone with speach in Literature section Travel map of Soviet Latvian writers (the 70s and 80s of the 20th century).
Writing under ‘Nom de Plume’ in Latvia in the Period of Soviet Occupation
Afternoon of Jumpravsala gardeners' stories
Within the framework of the project "Urban Experiences: Narratives, Memory and Place Heritage", researchers of the Archives of Latvian Folklore collect stories of Pārdaugava residents. On a cool and sunny Saturday, September 18, Una Smilgaine and Ieva Tihovska met with Jumpravsala gardeners Rasma Griņa, Aija Zīle, Aigars Zemīte, Valērijs, Gunārs, and Gatis. The talks were about the arrangement and significance of the garden ("If you are very stressed about something, put your hands on the ground", "help the children, give each one a box of tomatoes"), about the history and future of Jumpravsala gardens, about the anxiety and addiction on the lease of gardeners, on flooding, thieves and concerts, on the incompatibility of pears and junipers, on beetles eating pigeons, the possibility of keeping a horse, the celebration of Midsummer and birthdays, assistance and organized help. We visited the Aija garden, where a two-meter-long lily grew this year, and the oldest garden houses in Jumpravsala, built in the 20th century 40s.
