The Polish Section of IOV will organize the 12th European Conference on Folk Culture in Lublin, Poland.  The event will be held June 23 and 24, 2010 at Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej w LublinieInstytut Kulturoznawstwa. The section wishes to make the following announcement:

Polish Section of International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) and Institute of Cultural Studies of Maria Curie-Sklodovska University in Lublin

Invite you to participate in THE 12TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON FOLK CULTURE –
Folk Culture as a Source of National Symbols in the Period of Globalization
Lublin, 23-24 June 2010

In the period of globalization an exchange of points of views and opinions on history and culture of every nation of Europe seems to be very important since it allows not only to understand a beauty, wealth and originality of a culture of each European nation but also to see within all the cultures an existence of elements that are ideologically related or simply the same.

The aim of the conference organized by the Polish Section of the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) and the Institute of Cultural Studies of Maria Curie-Sklodovska University in Lublin is to enable both theoreticians and practitioners, representatives of European scientific centers and various organizations engaged in a preservation as well as popularization of folk culture to discuss an essence, role and significance of national symbols originated in traditional culture in the light of globalization.

The conference is intended to have an interdisciplinary character, thus particular presentations can concern spiritual, material or social culture. The subject of an analysis can be texts of folk, ritual behaviours as well as material products of traditional culture.

Proposed topics for discussions:

• an essence of the notion of national symbolism
• relations between national cultures on a level of symbolic communication
• religiousness within symbolic communication
• levels of symbolical signs, f.i. national, regional ones etc.
• social stratifications and a problem of national symbols
• an analysis of national symbols as a subjective reconstruction
• contemporary folk cultures and problems of globalization

Please, send an application form (download here) by November 25th, 2009 by mail, e-mail or fax to the address given below:

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej w Lublinie
Instytut Kulturoznawstwa
Pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 4
20-031 Lublin, Poland
(with an addnotation: "IOV CONFERENCE’")

Tel/fax: 0048 815372773
e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The applicants can expect answers by the end of January 2010.

The conference fee is 200 EUR and covers the costs of accomodation (1 night – 23-24 June 2010), full board (2 x breakfast, 2 x lunch, 1 x dinner, 3 x coffee breaks), conference materials and a conference publication. The conference fee does not cover the costs of a participant’s trip.

The official languages of the Conference are: Polish, English and Russian.
The detailed programme of the Conference will be formulated in Bulletin No 2.

Additional information
The 44th National Festival of Folk Bands and Singers will be held in Kazimierz Dolny upon the Vistula (near Lublin) from 25 to 27 June 2010. The conference was so planned to enable people to participate in it.

The conference organizators inform people interested in taking a part in the festival that they can help them to make a reservation for a longer stay at hotel in Lublin but they strongly stress that all the costs connected with an additional reservation will have to be paid additionally by participants.

Organizing Conference Committee

Prof. Jan Adamowski
Prof. Anna Brzozowska-Krajka
Mieczysław Marczuk Ph.D.
Edward Balawejder M.A.
Janina Biegalska M.A.

Secretariat
Mariola Tymochowicz Ph.D.
Joanna Paczos M.A.