The periphery will take pride of place on 7-10 May 2009 when a conference on the island experience comes to Lerwick, Shetland. Taking Shetland out of the Box: Island Cultures and Shetland Identity will consider the ways in which geographically- and culturally insular communities serve as meeting places for ideas, producing unique and vibrant local identities.

The conference is a collaboration between the University of Aberdeen’s Elphinstone Institute, the UHI Millennium Institute’s Centre for Nordic Studies, and the Shetland Museum & Archives, which will host the event. This is projected to be the largest academic conference ever to have been held in Shetland, which is a testament to the event’s interdisciplinary and international scope.

The conference will bring together academics and practitioners from throughout North America, Ireland, the UK, and the Nordic realm. A variety of different fields will be represented, as folklorists, artists, historians, anthropologists, tourism experts, storytellers, and political scientists will be in attendance.

The conference will feature two keynote speakers. One of them is Bo Almqvist, the former head of the Department of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin, who gained great respect over a career of researching Nordic-Celtic cultural interaction. The other keynote speaker is the prize-winning Danish novelist and essayist, Carsten Jensen.

The conference’s organizers have put out a call for papers. Anyone who is interested in the culture and art of insular communities is welcome to attend the event.

For more information, please visit the conference website (www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/events/shetland ) or contact the convenor, Adam Grydehøj, at shetlandconference@abdn.ac.uk