Call for papers to the special issue of Slovak Ethnology/Slovenský národopis, volume 73, number 2/2025 on the topic Ethical and Methodological Uncertainties in Studying the Eastern Bloc Ethnology and Folkloristics.

Guest editors:

Nikola Balaš (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague), nikola.balas@eu.cas.cz

Kaisa Langer (TU Dresden, Germany), kaisa.langer@tu-dresden.de

The history of the Cold War era ethnology and folkloristics in the Eastern Bloc poses many pressing questions related to the range of fundamental uncertainties that arise when discussing the socialist past. While the number of works on the topic has been steadily growing in the past decades (Hann, Sárkány, Skalník, Eds, 2005; Bošković, Hann, Eds., 2013; Mihăilescu, Naumović, Iliev, Eds., 2008; Zachar Podolinská, Popelková, 2023; Ķencis, Bronner, Seljamaa, Eds., 2024), not many authors paid attention to the variety of methodological uncertainties arising when studying this specific period.

Without losing sight of the specifics of the socialist era, our special issue aims to give priority to ethical and methodological issues.

We would like to encourage prospective authors to focus on the issues such as:

• What kind of source criticism is needed when working with the documents produced under the socialist power structure?
• What uncertainties are there when one does not have all the relevant archives fully available?
• How should we approach lacunae and omissions in interlocutors’ narratives?
• Is it possible to reconcile interlocutors’ right to privacy and personal rights with research objectives especially when the interlocutors were involved in the ‘problematic’ past and are still alive?
• Are there tactful ways to deal with apparent misdeeds (such as plagiarism or sharecropping) of accomplished scholars?

Seemingly limited to the past, these questions have a substantial bearing on our present as several scholars who began their careers during the socialist period continue to be active today, usually as power holders with the capacity to influence academic careers. So, how complicated is it to write about „skeletons in the closet“ and „elephants in the room“?

We welcome theoretical articles as well as case studies that discuss ethical and methodological uncertainties in striving to find a nuanced way to describe the disciplinary past.

Contributors are kindly requested to submit their abstracts and keywords directly through the editorial system of the Journal Slovak Ethnology (https://journals.savba.sk/index.php/slovenskynarodopis/login) no later than 1st December 2024.

The final manuscripts will be expected no later than 28th February 2025, through the same editorial system. They should not exceed 6,250 words or 45,000 characters, including spaces, notes, and references, and should follow the journal’s guidelines for authors accessible HERE.

Slovenský národopis/Slovak Ethnology vyzýva na zaslanie príspevkov do pripravovaného čísla 1/2025, ročník 73, zameraného na tému Slovensko 1944: Deportácie, Židia, rezistencia, majorita.

Hosťujúci editori:

Peter Salner (Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie SAV, v. v. i.) Ján Hlavinka (Historický ústav SAV, v. v. i.)

V roku 2024 si pripomíname tri významné okrúhle jubileá, spojené s rokom 1944:

• 80. výročie deportácií Židov z Maďarska; tie postihli aj židovských obyvateľov južných území dnešného Slovenska, ktoré boli v dôsledku výsledkov Viedenskej arbitráže (2. 11. 1938) a anexie z jari roku 1939 až do mája 1945 súčasťou Maďarského kráľovstva;
• 80. výročie začiatku tzv. druhej vlny deportácií Židov z územia Slovenskej republiky (1939 – 1945); od septembra 1944 do konca marca 1945 bolo z územia vojnového slovenského štátu deportovaných do rôznych nacistických koncentračných táborov asi 13 000 Židov a ďalší boli masovo vraždení priamo na jeho území (Kremnička, Nemecká, Zvolen atď.);
• 80. výročie vypuknutia Slovenského národného povstania (29. 8. 1944), jedného z najvýznamnejších aktov antifašistického odporu v Európe; jeho súčasťou boli aj pokusy o záchranu ohrozených židovských obyvateľov, ale tiež ich zapojenie sa do povstaleckých bojov.

Udalosti roku 1944 a posledných mesiacov druhej svetovej vojny nie sú dosiaľ dostatočne zmapované. Osobitne sa to týka diania na území, ktoré bolo v rokoch 1938 – 1945 súčasťou Maďarského kráľovstva. Redakcia časopisu Slovenský národopis sa v úsilí prispieť k hlbšiemu pochopeniu a poznaniu predmetného obdobia  rozhodla venovať samostatné číslo časopisu 2025/1 tejto problematike.

Privítame príspevky historikov, etnológov, ale aj odborníkov z iných spoločenskovedných disciplín, ktoré si všímajú hlavne:

• teoretické a metodologické problémy spojené s výskumom deportácií v roku 1944;
• politické aspekty deportácií v rokoch 1944 – 1945 v Maďarsku a na Slovensku;
• priebeh deportácií židovského obyvateľstva z tzv. arbitrážnych území a druhej vlny deportácií zo Slovenska;
• význam Slovenského národného povstania v sledovaných procesoch;
• pokusy ohrozených židovských obyvateľov vyhnúť sa deportáciám;
• postoje majoritného obyvateľstva k deportáciám a deportovaným.

Príspevky budú uverejnené v slovenskom/českom jazyku.

Termín zaslania abstraktov: 31. máj 2024

Prosíme prispievateľov, aby abstrakty v slovenčine a v češtine posielali priamo do redakčného systému Slovenského národopisu na adresu: https://journals.savba.sk/index.php/slovenskynarodopis/about/submissions

Termín dodania príspevkov: 30. november 2024

Prosíme prispievateľov, aby príspevky posielali priamo do redakčného systému Slovenského národopisu na adresu: https://journals.savba.sk/index.php/slovenskynarodopis/about/submissions

Informácie pre autorov: text príspevku by nemal presiahnuť 6,250 slov alebo 45,000 znakov s medzerami, vrátane poznámok a zoznamu literatúry a mal by rešpektovať Pokyny pre prispievateľov. Podrobnosti nájdete TU.

Call for papers to the special issue of Slovak Ethnology/Slovenský národopis, volume 72, number 4/2024

Slow Memory. Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe

This special issue of Slovak Ethnology is thematically focused on the concept of slow memory, which relates to transformative practices and processes of uneven and accelerating change in society. We invite authors from various disciplines, such as ethnology, sociology and anthropology, history, political science, communication and media, literary studies, etc., to submit contributions that discuss and give empirical examples of the emerging concept of slow memory.

Guest editors:

Monika Vrzgulová, Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology SAS, Bratislava, monika.vrzgulova@savba.sk                                                                                                               Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, Lund University, Barbara.Tornquist-Plewa@slav.lu.se                                                  

Violeta Davoliūtė, Vilnius University, violeta.davoliute@tspmi.vu.lt

This special issue of Slovak Ethnology is thematically related to the Cost Action CA 20105 Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change (SlowMemo)

Memory studies, which emerged at the end of the 20th century, brought a new way of thinking about past events into academia. Scholars within the interdisciplinary field concentrate primarily on significant or extreme past events (e.g., wars and genocides) and the meaning given to them in the present. Moreover, during the last two decades, the focus has been on emphasizing the dynamics of memories and analysing current struggles over how to remember specific events. 

Consequently, memory studies as a scholarly field has been much less concerned with “slow-moving”, diffused, and symptomless events that cannot simply be attributed to a particular date or place but which significantly affect peoples’ present and future. Furthermore, there has been much less attention on “la longue durée” of memory and studies of collective memories’ resilience to fast changes. Thus, the purpose of this special issue is to fill this void. We are interested in the change in slow memory processes, for example, across the generations, in educational policies, media representations or public discourse. It is essential to consider the problematic “dark past” as well as slow transformations that bring improvements in people’s lives.

We invite the contributions that conceptualize slow memory and look from new angles at how societies and individuals remember the past. The regional focus is on Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe, but we are also interested in contributions providing comparisons across Europe or other regions worldwide. We welcome case studies as well as theoretical or methodological articles and essays about the memories of “slow changes”, in relation to such phenomena as for example

• images and narratives (e.g., stereotypes of “the Others” or self-images of the own group as victims);
• remembering the significant or extreme past events (e.g., WWII and the Holocaust, the era of communist regimes, and war in the former Yugoslavia);
• deindustrialization;
• changes in gender relations, intergenerational relations and others;
• the hollowing out of welfare states;
• gentrification;
• climate change and environmental destruction;
• the creeping rise of misinformation.

Authors can submit their abstracts and keywords no later than 31^st March 2024 through the journal Slovak Ethnology editorial system to: https://journals.savba.sk/index.php/slovenskynarodopis/login.

Please send the final manuscripts by 31st July 2024 and submit them through the same editorial system. They should be at most 5,000 words or 36,000 characters, including spaces, notes, and references, and should follow the journal’s guidelines for contributors accessible HERE.

Call for the special issue of Slovak Ethnology/Slovenský národopis, volume 72, number 3/2024, on the topic “Family as a safe haven? Families in social practice and narratives in times of crises”

Guest editors:
Adriana Zaharijević (University of Belgrade, Serbia)
Soňa G. Lutherová (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia)

This special issue of Slovak Ethnology is supported by the VEGA project 2/0053/22 “Intergenerational relationships in families and communities: an ethnological perspective” and will also feature collaborative work of the COST “Who cares in Europe?” CA18119. 

In uncertain times, as individuals and societies, we attempt to make sense of crises. Living in a risk society (Beck, 1986), we are searching for stability, trying to understand what constitutes threats and for whom (Adam & Jost, 2004). Often, we turn to our families as the anchor in the tempestuous times, as it provides us with ties to the past but also with a promise of the future. Home and its idealized notions of intimacy and security are at the center of family life (Clarke, 2001). However, uncertain times may introduce particular tensions to the family lives or enhance those that are already present. How do we experience our family lives during crisis? What is the role of the family in our everyday practices when coping with uncertainties? How do we reflect on this narratively?

Today, the narratives on families abound, and various actors feed on our tendency to turn to family in times of crisis. Family is at the center stage of many far-right political movements, which forcefully push for a particular “natural” order of things. Hence, narratives on families clash in the fluster of meanings and perspectives, and the gap between social practices and public discourse widens. How does the crises-induced narrativization of families restrict the lived forms of familial life? How are individuals affected by the political attempts to reduce the family to a single legitimate form? How does such politicization of family further the crisis through polarizations, erasures, and devaluations of everyday practices deemed “unnatural”?

This special issue of Slovak Ethnology invites authors to contribute to the topic by addressing various aspects of this interrelation, such as: 

• Everyday practices and experiences in the families during the uncertain times;
• Tensions and changing dynamics in the family relationships from the perspective of social sciences and humanities;
• Changing intergenerational relationships and their role in families;
• Individual and social narratives on families – between the discourse and practice;
• Politicization of the family lives.

Contributors are kindly requested to submit their abstracts and keywords directly through the editorial system of Slovak Ethnology (https://journals.savba.sk/index.php/slovenskynarodopis/login) no later than 15 February 2024. 15 February 2024. The deadline for abstract submissions is extended until 29 February 2024.

The final manuscripts will be expected no later than 15 May 2024 through the same editorial system. They should not exceed 6,250 words or 45,000 characters, including spaces, notes, and references, and should follow the journal’s guidelines for authors accessible (HERE).