Selected Past Conferences

The Ritual Year Conference 2016: Findhorn, Scotland, 8-12 January 2016

The 12th annual conference of the SIEF Working Group on the Ritual Year, hosted by the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, will be held at Findhorn, on the shores of the Moray Firth in northern Scotland.

The centrepiece of the conference will be a visit to the Burning of the Clavie, an ancient New Year fire festival in the neighbouring village of Burghead, held each year on 11 January, Aul Eel (Old Yule) according to the Julian calendar.

Free-Reed Convention Study Day

6 November 2015
Sponsored by the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, this study day was part of the Button Boxes and Moothies Festival, and explored the role and function of free-reed instruments in musical traditions throughout the world.

'Steppin Steens o Knowledge': Folklore, Ethnology, and Ethnomusicology Conference, Aberdeen (FEECA)

4–6 July 2014

FEECA was organized to answer the need for an academic forum for postgraduate research students and early-career researchers and to strengthen relations between relevant scholars and institutions in the UK and elsewhere.

‘Steppin Steens o Knowledge’ (Stepping Stones of Knowledge) refers to a life philosophy of the late Stanley Robertson, a Traveller and former research associate at the Elphinstone Institute. Drawn from the incremental nature of Stanley’s ballad and storytelling traditions, the concept encapsulates both the initial career steps being taken by conference-goers, as well as the new ‘steppin steens’ being created through each participant’s research.

The conference was a great success, demonstrating that strong research in Folklore, Ethnology, and Ethnomusicology is being conducted around the world. Indeed, the conference attracted delegates from Europe, Australia, North America, and South Asia.

See the conference programme here.

The conference was made possible thanks to the generous support of the University of Aberdeen Development Trust, the School of Education, and the Friends of the Elphinstone Institute.

The International Ballad Conference of the Kommission fur Volksdichtung

29 August–3 September 2007

The conference was themed around 'Songs of People on the Move', a productive idea that led to some fascinating explorations of the world of singers and their songs. Selected refereed papers have been published as Songs of People on the Move edited by Thomas A. McKean. The conference was held at The Balmacara Hotel, Balmacara, Lochalsh, Scotland. We featured four days of papers and an excursion through north Skye, as well as singing sessions and concerts.

North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, 2006

• Connecting Cultures