The Association of Serbian Folklorists, University Library “Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade, the Institute for Literature and Arts in Belgrade, and the Scientific, Educational and Cultural Center “Vuk Karadžić” in Tršić have the honor of inviting you to take part in the International Scientific Conference Contemporary Serbian Folkloristics 16, which will take place in Tršić, October 3–5, 2025, with the possibility of online participation.
Topics
a) The Internet, artificial intelligence, posthumanism: folklore material and research challenges
We believe that human cognition, human fears, and human narratives are essentially focused on a relatively small number of obsessive fields and categories, and that is why, aided by your research, we want to shed light on the extent and quality of the modifications imposed by the Internet, new technological environments, new experiences with AI and links to the inorganic world, superior in many respects, yet limited in its own way. If there is one field of creative activity and research that has anticipated the connection between the organic and the inorganic, it is certainly folklore. Folklore has showcased examples of a hero “made of stone down to his waist” (Mina of Kostur) and metamorphosis of a stone into a man; “wings and wing accompaniment” and “the helpful power,” which fairies and dragon-like heroes put on and take off, in which their power and superhuman and unhuman nature is located; a soul that is kept outside the body (brain upload); genetic engineering (Saint Andrew being “re-born” from a little bone which remained after him), etc.
Thematic blocks:
1) Defining community and knowledge in a modern-day context
What is defined as a community (folk) today and what is knowledge (lore)?
2) Folklore genres in electronic environments
In the non-electronic age, knowledge was mediated at all times and transferred in genres, in relatively small social circles and in a relatively coherent way. However, it is true that no folklore genre failed to adapt to a new era, in all the forms of creation, where transmission varies rather significantly. Urban curses/blessings, with or without a humoristic overtone, have inherited classic forms; urban legends, which are not only spread faster but among groups with a different logic of relating than traditional groups, have absorbed topics of communication with the dead via computers or suspense effects thanks to the miraculous behavior of technological equipment (computers turning on and off, content on screens that are unrelated to the user, and the like); etiological, eschatological, and cultural and historical belief narratives still exist in the online world; the gusle, “epic” and epic decasyllabic verse have become part of rock, punk, hip-hop, and heavy metal heritage due to, among other things, technical sound upgrading (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPHSQkB7BGQ); fairy tales and video games are related in many ways (the hero’s transformation, life multiplication, magic resources and helpers, space shaping, new damage incurrence as a new story beginning, and the like).
A number of genres bordering between folklore and popular culture (such as memes) are part of everyday experience and establishing connections between people, shared by distant groups. Nonetheless, other genres—such as conspiracy theories or rumors, although having rich folkloric and literary backgrounds—have lived to see expansion with the coming of the Internet. Covid folklore, as a peculiar type of folklore about diseases and illnesses, is based to a great extent on the information spreading on the Web, and it is not the only one. Lexical derivation, too, testifies to the significance of new technologies and the status of “knowledge” (xeroxlore, photocopylore, newslore, netlore, UFO-lore, etc.). The questions of “collective censorship” have been opened up in new forms, since Internet users decide on the status of posts by their votes.
3) Virtual worlds and questions of collecting, safeguarding, and archiving folkloric material
In a modern experience context, new questions emerge with respect to online heritage, collecting, keeping, and the archiving of materials which disappear from the Web relatively quickly. Another question that arises is that of groups sharing particular narratives. Also, the “space” in which they share it. Virtual worlds are not only “virtual”: In the virtual world, some countries have established Second world embassies which are financed by the respective states (the embassies of the Maldives, Sweden, Estonia, Serbia, Columbia, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Israel, and Malta were opened during 2007 and 2008, and the Ministry of the Diaspora of the Republic of Srpska financed the Serbian Island project in which the Museum of Nikola Tesla, Guča and Exit Festivals were presented). On the other hand, it has been noted that wireless phones have rendered geographic positioning meaningless and turned us truly and symbolically into “nomads” with peculiar tale types.
4) Local cultures, (cyber) space, and intangible cultural heritage
The local cultures question, which has been the focus of both a traditional and a contemporary key of intangible cultural heritage, has become even more complex in modern communication contexts. The mere term local—which indicates place (locus), simultaneously a key category of human thinking and world conceptualization as recognized by cognitive linguistics—has been reconceptualized to a great extent in cyber space. On the other hand, cyber space itself is quite similar to fairy-tale space, and avatars similar to fairy-tale heroes.
Enriched by our personal experience with digital folklore repositories, we are convinced that they can also offer invaluable sources for understanding and drawing conclusions about “classical” and “more recent” folklore material. With the hope of fostering new ideas which have surely been left out in this inevitably short call for proposals, we look forward to your participation.
b) Contemporary folkloristics
The results of ongoing research in any folkloristic sphere can be presented within the framework of this topic.
The time limit for presentations is 15 minutes, while plenary sessions may last up to 45 minutes. Time allocated for discussion after each presentation is 5 minutes. The working languages of the conference are all Slavic languages and English. Due to the international profile of the conference, it is suggested that presentations should be accompanied by PowerPoint presentations in any Slavic language or in the English language.
The title of the paper, with a short abstract (up to 200 words) and a biography (up to 100 words) must be sent no later than May 1, 2025 to the address ssfolkloristika16@gmail.com. The application form is attached to this Call for Proposals. Confirmation of participation will be sent by June 1, 2025 and the Program of the International Scientific Conference CSF16 will be announced by September 1, 2025.
A book of the proceedings of the conference will be published in 2026. Conference participation includes transportation from Belgrade to Tršić (a round trip), accommodation and meals. The registration fee is 6,000 RSD (€50). For the Association of Serbian Folklorists members who have paid the membership fee for the current year, the registration fee is 4,000 RSD (€35).
Program Committee
Saša Babič, PhD, Research Associate, ZRC SASA Institute of Slovenian Ethnology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ana Banić Grubišić, PhD, Associate Professor, Senior Research Associate, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Tiber Falzett, PhD, Assistant Professor, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Ljiljana Gavrilović, PhD, Principal Research Fellow (retired), the SASA Institute of Ethnography, Belgrade, Serbia
Lidija Delić, PhD, Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Smiljana Djordjević Belić, PhD, Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Dorian Jurić, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington, the United States of America
Bojan Jović, PhD, Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Anna Lazareva, PhD, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia
Danijela Lekić, PhD, Research Assistant, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Suzana Marjanić, PhD, Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Marina Mladenović Mitrović, PhD, Research Assistant, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Prof. Jelenka Pandurević, PhD, Full Professor, Faculty of Philology, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Prof. Ljiljana Pešikan Ljuštanović, PhD, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Prof. Danijela Popović Nikolić, PhD, Full Professor, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia
Prof. Nemanja Radulović, PhD, Full Professor, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Milan Tomašević, PhD, Research Associate, the SASA Institute of Ethnography, Belgrade, Serbia
Tatsiana Valodzina, PhD, Doctor of Philological Studies, The Center for the Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Research, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus
Sanja Zlatanović, PhD, Senior Research Associate, the SAS Institute of Political Science, Bratislava, the Slovak Republic
Organizing Committee
Lidija Delić, PhD, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Dejan Ilić, PhD, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Bojan Jović, PhD, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Danijela Lekić, PhD, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Ana Milinković, MA, Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade, Serbia
Marina Mladenović Mitrović, PhD, Institute for Literature and Art Belgrade, Serbia
Prof. Ljiljana Pešikan Ljuštanović, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Aleksandra Purić, Scientific, Educational, and Cultural Center “Vuk Karadžić”, Tršić, Serbia