For the past two years, I have worked together with an international team of researchers on a research project titled The Social Dimensions of Sámi Research which is hosted by the Tromsø University Museum at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) and funded by the Research Council of Norway. As part of the project, we are editing a new book called “Sámi research in Transition” which examines and compares the development of research relating to the Sámi in different Nordic settings. The first CFP deadline (for abstracts) has already closed, but the deadline for completed manuscripts is not before September 15, 2019. If you are working on a topic which you think might be relevant, and would like to have your text considered for publication in the book, please contact either me or one of my fellow editors, Dr. Jukka Nyyssönen or Prof. Veli-Pekka Lehtola as soon as possible. Thank you!
Call for Book Chapters
Sami Research in Transition:
Knowledge, Politics and Social Change
Editors: Laura Junka-Aikio, Jukka Nyyssönen and Veli-Pekka Lehtola
Abstract Submission Deadline 1. March 2019
In the 1970s, the social terrain of research relating to the Sami was radically transformed and calls for “new” Sami research, which would be accountable to the Sami society’s own needs and word-views rather than to those pertaining to the (colonial) state and the dominant society, became pertinent. Sami movements saw access to academic institutions and knowledge production as central for Sami self-determination, and also the broader paradigm change within the academia towards critical approaches supported this shift and its early institutionalisation in the Sámi Instituhtta, which was established in Guovdageaidnu in 1973.
Half a century later, when several Nordic universities offer programs committed to Arctic Indigenous and Sami research, when general and state interest in Sami culture and lands is again growing, and when “new” Sami research is no longer so new, revisiting the paradigm change to understand the present and possible futures, is as timely as important. This book seeks to examine the political and social dimensions of Sami research from the “lappologist” era to the present, with an overarching interest on the entangled relationships between research and social change.
By Sami research, we refer to any research relating to the Sami both before and after the intended paradigm shift towards “new” Sami research, in order to grasp the qualities of historical change and transformation. For instance, to what extent and how has Samification of academic institutions and research taken place in practice, and what challenges remain? How has it shaped and reshaped Sami and Nordic societies, or the relations between the Sami and the state, for instance on the level of academic and policy discourses, in the media, or in the form of legislation and governmental policy? And how, in turn, have further changes in the society and in the character and interests of Nordic states influenced the field of Sami research?
By this Call, we invite empirical and theoretical contributions, which examine the changing relationships between Sami research, society and/or the state within specific contexts and locations. We accept contributions from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Submissions by researchers who are Sami, or who have personal links to contemporary Sami communities, are particularly encouraged. Possible chapter themes include:
– Sami research and the colonial past/present
– Histories of Institutionalisation of Sami research
– Research as an aspect of the governance of Sami societies
– The evolving relationship between Sami research and Sami ethnopolitical movements
– Past uses, contemporary meanings and legacies of Lappology
– The relationship between Sami research and Indigenous studies
– Gender and the impact of feminism in Sami research
– The role of epistemological struggles and strategies in knowledge relating to the Sami
– Ethics in Sami research
– The politics of defining Sami research
– Research, national legislation and application of laws relating to the Sami
– The social impact of Sami rights research
– Sami research and neoliberalisation of the state and the university
– Sami research and research funding: policies, practices and implications
– Research in the context of the Arctic Resource Rush
– Sami research and research funding: policies, practices and implications
– Research and the politics of representation of the Sami
– Sami research in the age of social media and the Internet
– The role of research in building Sami education
– (Arts) research and Sami arts
– Sami research and Nordic and Sami popular cultures
– Developments and contexts of Sami research outside Sápmi
– Sami research in Russia
– Autoethnographies of becoming a Sami researcher or actor in Sami higher education and research policy
Submission Procedure
At the first stage, both long abstracts and manuscript submissions are accepted. The recommended length for long abstracts is 1000 words (about 2 pages single-spaced). Full manuscript submissions should be no more than 10 000 words. The deadline for the first submission is 1 March 2019.
Those abstracts and manuscripts, which seem most relevant for the book, will be selected for a second round of submissions by which we expect to receive completed manuscripts. The second submission deadline is15 September 2019. All submissions aresubject to a preliminary review and revision suggestions by the editors, after which they will be blind-reviewed by the confirmed international book publisher. The book will be published in 2020.
The book will be edited as part of the Research Council of Norway funded research project “The Societal Dimensions of Sami Research” hosted by Tromsø University Museum/ UiT.
Website: https://en.uit.no/forskning/forskningsgrupper/gruppe?p_document_id=492164
Questions and Contact:
Please send your submission and inquiries by email primarily to editors Junka-Aikio and Nyyssönen:
Dr. Laura Junka-Aikio,Giellagas Institute for Sami Research, University of Oulu.
Email: laura.junka@gmail.com
Dr. Jukka Nyyssönen,Tromsø University Museum, UiT
Email: jukka.kalervo@uit.no.
Prof. Veli-Pekka Lehtola, Giellagas Institute for Sami research, University of Oulu
Email: veli-pekka.lehtola@oulu.fi
