UPCOMING

Information regarding upcoming events that may be of interest to our readers. If you have a relevant event that you would like us to add to this page please email andrew.robinson@shu.ac.uk :

04/02/25 – Online Talk – The Calendar Custom and Contemporary Fiction – Sophie Parkes-Nield

How could, or even should, a writer approach intangible cultural heritage such as the calendar custom in their creative work?

This talk is based on Sophie Parkes-Nield’s doctoral research that examines the role and impact of the calendar custom in contemporary fiction. In it, Sophie will appraise examples of contemporary fiction in which a calendar custom is represented, and reflect on her own practice of writing a novel in which a calendar custom is situated at its heart.

Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members) Info HERE | Tickets HERE

18/03/25 – Online Talk – Elias Ashmole and the Cottingley Fairies – Folklore Society

Fairies from Princess Mary’s Gift Book

A Folklore Society online talk by John Clark (Curator Emeritus, Museum of London)

The three butterfly-winged ‘dancing fairies’ in the first photograph taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths at Cottingley Beck in July 1917 were cut-outs based upon a drawing of fairies that had appeared in a book called Princess Mary’s Gift Book (1915)… a mishmash of magic rituals Noyes describes, to summon fairies and make them visible, can be traced back to original spells in one of the ‘magical’ manuscripts of Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) in the Bodleian Library. We also look at the career of the art-historian/occultist Fred Gettings who in the 1970s was the first to recognise the source of the Cottingley Fairies in Shepperson’s drawing.

Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 Folklore Society members) Info HERE

11/04/25 – Symposium – Lincolnshire Folk Tales

CCL members Dr David Clarke and Andrew Robinson will be presenting papers. at the Lincolnshire Folk Tales Symposium on the 11th April 2025.

Full info available HERE

15-05-25 – Conference – Dracula Returns To Derby

In May 1924, at the world premiere at Derby’s Grand Theatre, Dracula stepped onto the stage for the first time. He was charming, suave and dressed in a dinner suit and opera cloak, a different vampire to the monster of Bram Stoker’s novel. Dracula Returns to Derby aims to restore the city’s place in the story of the world’s most famous vampire.

Dracula Returns is a conference and celebration marking the 101st anniversary of Dracula’s licensed stage appearance in Derby. The conference and related events take place on 15-18 May 2025.

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Please Note – The Call for Papers is now closed.

Conference Info HERE / Project Info HERE

20/06/2025 – Conference – Folklore and the Senses

The Fuller Brooch (British Museum) via Wikimedia Commons

Folklore and the Senses

The Folklore Society’s Annual Conference 2025, in collaboration with the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork, Ireland.

Friday 20 June to Sunday 22 June 2025

We know the world through our senses, but how we sense is inflected by symbolism, tradition and belief—by folklore in other words.  What does folklore tell us about our senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste and, indeed, second sight?

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers of 20 minutes are invited on any topic related to folklore and the senses. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

  • Folklore of the material world and of embodied experience
  • Ethnography of the senses, ethnography of the fleeting or ephemeral
  • The role of the senses in folk custom and narrative
  • Haptic perception and communication in folklore
  • The senses, absences and erasures in documentation, archiving and dissemination

Full details HERE