This in an interesting symposium offered by my colleagues at the  
Vermont Folklife Center!

Call for Proposals

Sequestering Tradition?: A Cultural Sustainability Symposium

August 15-18, 2013 ~ Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, Vermont

Overview

This Symposium grows out of the premise that "cultural vitality is as  
essential to a healthy and sustainable society as social equity,  
environmental responsibility and economic viability," as articulated  
by Jon Hawkes in The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture's  
Essential Role in Public Planning.

We view "cultural vitality" as the diverse, thriving practices and  
beliefs that undergird social systems and make human action  
meaningful. Just as environmental sustainability recognizes the  
critical role of ecological diversity to the survival of our planet,  
cultural sustainability recognizes the critical role of cultural  
diversity to the health and well-being of our “cultural ecosystems.”  
Cultural sustainability provides a framework for discussing tradition  
as a dynamic cultural process, one that empowers people to make  
intentional decisions about their communities.

In recent years practitioners and scholars from a range of fields  
including anthropology, ethnomusicology, folklore and oral history  
have begun to explore how the concept of sustainability fits in with  
their work.  In a related way, practitioners from fields such as arts  
administration, education, environmental studies, community and  
economic development, and community organizing have engaged  
increasingly with how the cultures of the communities with which they  
work can impact their professional efforts.

Sequestering Tradition?: A Cultural Sustainability Symposium provides  
an opportunity for workers across this diverse range of fields to  
communicate with one another around the intersections of culture and  
sustainability in theory and practice.  Through this Symposium we hope  
to explore further the scope of cultural sustainability work and the  
core ideas that inform it.  Our title “Sequestering Tradition?” aims  
to raise questions about what it means to “sequester” --to capture and  
store-- cultural traditions in order to ensure their relevance and  
viability in a rapidly changing world.  In addition, we ask: How can  
theoretical models from ecology and cultural work inform one another?  
How do they shape the concepts that underlie the discourse of cultural  
sustainability?  Are there limits to these analogies?  If protection  
and preservation of traditions are not enough, then what is?

Sequestering Tradition?: A Cultural Sustainability Symposium invites  
proposals for presentations and workshops that explore the role of  
culture in sustainability from two related perspectives:

~ The introduction of the idea of culture into larger discussions of  
sustainability.

~ The application of notions of sustainability to cultural practices  
and concerns.


Goals for the Symposium

Symposium (noun), a "forum …  to debate, plot, boast, or simply revel  
with others."

~ To examine the idea of cultural sustainability, outline key concepts  
and terms, and define a scope of professional practice.

~ To develop models for the practical application of cultural  
sustainability methods and theories.

~ To encourage networking among scholars and practitioners engaged  
with the work of cultural sustainability.


Who Should Attend

We invite scholars, students and practitioners concerned with the  
impact that culture and sustainability have on/in their communities.   
Cultural workers and community leaders interested in developing the  
skills and knowledge to take action on behalf of a community will find  
models and inspiration at this symposium.


Presentation Formats

We welcome proposals for 1) panels with multiple speakers organized  
around specific topics or themes (45 minutes), 2) individual  
presentations reflecting the themes proposed above (20 minutes), and  
3) workshops sharing or developing specific models or practices (1.5  
hours).


Proposals Should Include

Title, format (e.g. paper, workshop, panel), name of  
presenter/co-presenters, name of institution/organization, email  
address, technological needs, and a 250-word abstract describing your  
proposed presentation.

Email proposals as a PDF or Microsoft Word attachment to the Cultural  
Sustainability Symposium Planning Committee at  
[log in to unmask]


Deadline for Submissions: May 3, 2013

View CFP online:  
http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/education/cultural-sustainability/symposium.php


Partners

Sequestering Tradition?: A Cultural Sustainability Symposium is  
sponsored by the Goucher College Masters of Arts program in Cultural  
Sustainability, Sterling College and the Vermont Folklife Center.

The Master of Arts program in Cultural Sustainability at Goucher  
College (Baltimore) brings together knowledge from anthropology,  
history, folklore, ethnomusicology, communications, business and  
management, linguistics, and activism to teach students how to effect  
positive, community-driven change in the cultures they care about  
most--whether it be an African village, an American inner-city  
neighborhood, a remote tribe in Asia, or a threatened public space  
just down the street. We teach our students how to work closely with  
individuals and communities to identify, protect, and enhance their  
important traditions, their ways of life, their cherished spaces, and  
their vital relationships to each other and the world.  
(http://www.goucher.edu/graduate-programs/ma-in-cultural-sustainability)

Located at the heart of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, and part of the  
area's growing agricultural renaissance, Sterling College is a  
liberal-arts college that integrates environmental studies throughout  
the curriculum.  Sterling's mission is to "combine structured academic  
study with experiential challenges and plain hard work to build  
responsible problem solvers who become stewards of the environment as  
they pursue productive lives."  Sequestering Tradition?: A Cultural  
Sustainability Symposium capitalizes on the model of community and  
experiential learning at the center of Sterling's curriculum, and  
draws upon the resources of Sterling’s Environmental Humanities  
program. (http://www.sterlingcollege.edu/environmental-humanities.html)

Founded in 1984, the Vermont Folklife Center (VFC) uses ethnography to  
strengthen the understanding of the cultural and social fabric of  
Vermont's diverse communities. The VFC's mission is to document and  
preserve the cultural heritage and traditions of Vermont, and produce  
educational programs and publications from its archive. We fulfill our  
mission by conducting ethnographic field research that captures the  
stories and traditions of our diverse communities; by teaching  
Vermonters of all ages to use digital technology to document and share  
their own life experience and heritage; by presenting public programs  
that increase understanding of our ever-changing cultural landscape;  
and by preserving personal and family stories, photographic  
collections, moving images, and recordings of regional music in our  
multimedia digital archive. (http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/)

-- 
-- 
Margaret Tamulonis
Manager, Collections and Exhibitions
The Robert Hull Fleming Museum
The University of Vermont
802-656-0153

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