Closing date: 31st October 2015
9th Conference of the International Committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming
Charms, Charmers and Charming: Innovation and Tradition,
Friday 6th – Sunday 8th May, 2016.
Hosted by the Departments of Folklore and Ethnology, Early and Medieval Irish, & Study of Religions
College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences (CACSSS),
University College Cork, Ireland.
Proposals are invited for papers that relate to any aspect of charms studies but especially encourage papers that address the theme: Innovation and Tradition. Charms, charmers and charming are associated with ‘traditional’ cultural systems. It is the aim of this conference to juxtapose the study of traditions with an exploration of the dynamics of innovation which has come with modernity, pluralism, globalisation, and digital and virtual worlds. Innovation can also be considered in terms of the evolving ways in which charms and charmers have been viewed in different societies over time or the development of new theoretical and conceptual lenses and methodological approaches through which charms, charmers and charming are approached.
Suggested panel themes are: tradition and innovation in the transmission of charms; tradition and innovation in theory and methodology of charm scholarship (including reflexivity, fieldwork and ethics); tradition and innovation and the identity of charmers; tradition and innovation in textual amulets: from manuscripts to tattoos; tradition and innovation in text and ritual.
The conference is open to scholars of all disciplines that approach charms, charmers and charming, both past and present, from a critical, analytical and cross-cultural perspective.
In addition there will be the following Special Sessions:
1. Flum Jordan. 10-minute papers that introduce, explore and compare national traditions of the Flum Jordan charm type.
2. Inverting Good and Evil: Role reversal of supernatural characters in verbal charms. 10-minute papers that introduce, explore and compare the phenomena of role reversal of good and evil characters in charms.
If you are interested in contributing to one of the special sessions, please contact Jonathan Roper jonathan.roper@ut.ee (Flum Jordan) or Emanuela Timotin etimotin@yahoo.com (Inverting Good and Evil).
The language of the conference is English. The length of each paper must not exceed 20 minutes (with the exception of papers for the Special Sessions which are 10 minutes).
The deadline for proposals is October 31st Samhain (Halloween), 2015. Please email your proposals (paper title and abstract) of 150 to 300 words to
corkcharms@gmail.com
Further information including the conference programme will be posted on the conference website:
www.corkcharms.wordpress.com
FMRSI 