Latvian folkloristics (1945–1985)

Funded by: Latvian Council of Science

Project No. lzp-2018/2-0268

Implementation period: December 2018 – November 2020

Project leader: Toms Ķencis, Rita Treija

Team: Leading researchers Dr. philol. Rita Treija and Baiba Krogzeme-Mosgorda. Researchers Dr. philol. Gatis Ozoliņš and Dr. philol. h.c. Māra Vīksna. Students Mg. philol. Ginta Pērle-Sīle and Mg. art. Digne Ūdre.

Project description: The aim of the project is the development of research and writing on the reflexive disciplinary history of Latvian folkloristics after World War II thus extending the previous research of Latvian folkloristics in the interwar period.

Project’s team simultaneously considers the development of Latvian post-war folkloristics both in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (hitherto on – Soviet Latvia) and within the Latvian exile community, mainly in Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the United States of America.

Project covers the fields of both institutionalized academic knowledge production and of

popular interest in Latvian folk traditions, the latter including also amateur research and neo-pagan ideology.

Participants of the project will study a variety of disciplinary representations: research trends and scholarly networks in Latvian folkloristics, cultural and institutional policy documents, folklore archives and folklore editions, folklore material (folksongs, dances, ornaments, Soviet folklore etc.) and artefacts inspired by folklore (artworks, design objects etc.) in order to discover underlying regimes of knowledge and cultural production.