Who We Are & What We Do
Mission and Strategies
Mission Statement: Who We Are
The International Society for Ethnology and Folklore—SIEF—is a pluridisciplinary organization centered in the twin fields of ethnology and folklore (E&F) in their various denominations, within the larger family of anthropological and cultural-historical disciplines. Like the fields it represents, SIEF is eclectic and open-minded, exploratory promiscuous in its disciplinary relations while keeping faith with its founding values and vision. Global in its origins, today SIEF operates within an institutional context that is concentrated in but not limited to Europe.
The principal mission is to gather scholars from its fields; to provide platforms for critical debate, networking, and exchange; to build infrastructures for intellectual cooperation; to publish and promote excellent scholarship; to promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity among scholars within our fields and to move forward the fields that it represents. SIEF facilitates scholarly exchange in the community of ethnology, folklore and neighboring disciplines, respecting the richness of diverse academic traditions, promoting dialogue and encouraging development. It also serves as a forum for different professional worlds, bringing together a diversity of researchers, teachers, students, archivists, as well as museum and heritage professionals, and often practice collaboration is included. Moreover, SIEF takes an active role in a larger community of scholarly societies.
SIEF provides its members with information on the fields and activities of the society and its working groups. Outside its own ranks, the society helps to raise public awareness of the scholarship they bring together and its societal relevance and public outreach. It encourages the use of ethnological knowledge, skills, and perspectives in society at large to inform public opinion and inspire innovative solutions. Furthermore, SIEF helps to integrate (post)graduate students and early career scholars into its international fields. It promotes the internationalization of higher education in E&F, facilitating cooperation in higher education with a view to sustaining the strength, diversity, and viability of departments and programs.
SIEF promotes academic and educational freedom and the critical role of scholarship in society. Our fields are nothing if they are not international; the important conversations that take us forward are carried out across national borders. SIEF helps us to have these conversations.
SIEF stands for free and open communication across boundaries, borders, and disciplines. With old divisions reappearing in Europe and beyond, we believe that specialists in Ethnology, Folklore, Anthropology, and related fields, have a duty to highlight lessons of the past and show that, through dialogue, we can reach better understandings of the world and each other.
Goals and Strategies: What We Do [and what we would like to do]
Scientific cooperation
§ SIEF organizes biennial international congresses in odd-numbered years in cooperation with local organizers at academic institutions in various parts of Europe, appointing jointly a scientific committee to define the theme, write the call, shape the format, outline the program, invite keynote speakers, and select panels.
§ SIEF maintains and supports active Working Groups organized by SIEF members around scholarly topics and approaches, as well as demographics (e.g. career stage and language). Working Groups organize panels or workshops at the biennial SIEF congress and many organize their own conferences in even-numbered years.
§ SIEF cultivates its sisterhood with the American Folklore Society (AFS) and the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), e.g. through the reciprocal organization of panels/forums at congresses, communication of calls and news, and joint membership options.
§ SIEF participates in the work of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA).
§ SIEF appoints national liaisons in E&F and maintain communication with them to update national information for SIEF’s maps and circulates SIEF information to the national mailing lists, national journals, etc.
§ SIEF collects and make available information about research institutions, archives, museums, and journals of E&F and visualize this information on interactive maps on the SIEF website, updated regularly.
§ [SIEF would like to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusivity within SIEF to ensure SIEF as a welcoming space for underrepresented and racialized communities and people, from all corners of Europe and the world. This aim should be reflected in all SIEF’s activities from working groups to networks and congresses].
Communications
§ SIEF supports the editors of SIEF's journals, Ethnologia Europaea and Cultural Analysis, in their work, aids in the journals' open access publication, defends their scientific integrity, and strengthens their visibility.
§ SIEF publishes a newsletter twice a year with practical information on the fields and activities of the society and its working groups.
§ SIEF hosts a website with current information on the society, its working groups, conferences, and publications, as well as other information relevant for members.
§ SIEF makes active use of social media to engage members and provide them with the latest international news in E&F and updates on the activities of the society and its working groups. § SIEF produces short films for visual communication in and about E&F to communicate with members and with a broader public.
§ SIEF appoints a standing committee on journals of E&F, to collect and provide information about E&F journals, foster their cooperation, facilitate a network for journal editors to share experiences and pool resources, and host coordination meetings at SIEF congresses.
Higher education
§ SIEF organizes a biennial summer school in E&F for doctoral students in cooperation with institutes of higher education in Europe, appoints a scientific committee and cooperates with the local organizer to define the theme, shape the format, outline the program, select the speakers, and admit the students.
§ SIEF appoints a standing committee on higher education in E&F, which collects and provides information about university departments and programs, fosters their cooperation, facilitates a network of departments to share experiences and pool resources, and hosts coordination meetings at SIEF congresses.
§ [SIEF promotes excellent higher education teaching in E&F and would like to initiate a state-of-the-art SIEF book series for research-based teaching in our fields as well as Pre-conference Workshop classes for undergraduate and graduate students]
§ SIEF collects and makes available information about higher education, [research institutions, archives, museums, and journals of E&F] and visualizes this information on interactive maps on the SIEF website, updated regularly.
§ SIEF awards biennially a Young Scholar Prize in recognition of the important contribution of young scholars to E&F.
§ [SIEF would like to encourage faculty and student mobility, and help to instigate joint courses, modules, programs and/or doctoral schools in E&F.]
[ ] = strategies and activities that have yet to be realized
Adopted by the SIEF Executive Board in July 2022, this is a living document and will be revisited and revised by future boards.
SIEF members are encouraged to share their thoughts and suggestions with board members by e-mail to: sief(at)meertens.knaw.nl
