International Ballad Conference

The next International Ballad Conference will take place in
Minsk, Belarus, July 13-18, 2009. The organizer of the
conference, Alexander Morozov, would like to expand this
conference to include more general folklore topics and has
asked me to make this call.

The conference will be titled: World Folk Heritage: Past,
Present, and Perspective Directions of Research

Suggested paper topics include, but are not limited to:

1) The history of intercultural interaction in folk and
ballad art
2) National varieties of cultural values, values rooted in
tradition and currently undergoing transformation
3) Universal values of traditional folk cultures as a basis
for communication and cooperation
4) The art of the ballad in world folk heritage: plots,
types, poetic forms.

Abstracts of up to 300 words together with requests for
equipment should be submitted by February 28, 2009 to Prof.
Morozov at _morozoff_@tut.by. Please also provide
author's address, affiliation, contact details and a
brief CV

Conference will take place in the Humanities Building of
the National Academy of Sciences in Minsk and accommodations
will be at the Akademicheskaia hotel (prices 30-50 euros per
night). Conference registration of 50 euros is payable on
site. It is anticipated the conference registration will
take place in the afternoon of July 13 and that the program
will begin at 10AM on the 14th. An excursion is planned for
the 15th and a visit to the National Library is planned for
the 17th. A conference banquet will be held on the evening
of the 17th.

Minsk is easily accessibly by air and by ground
transportation.

Languages of the ballad conference in the past have been
English, French, and German. The memo I got from Prof.
Moroz says nothing about conference languages, but I assume
they will be the same, plus perhaps Russian and/or
Belarusan.

Prof. Morozov is the contact person for more information
although I can probably answer some of your questions.


Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
200 Arts Building
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
Phone: 780-492-6810
Web: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/