Dear list members,

We are happy to announce that the International Conference 

“From Coast to Coast: Folklore and the Cultural Lives of the Western Indian Ocean”

will be held at “L’Orientale” University of Naples, Italy on 20-21 November 2025.

We invite submissions of abstracts. If you wish to give a presentation, please submit your application to the email address annalisa.bocchetti@unior.it by 30th August 2025.

Details of the call are shared below and in the attached file:

Submission of papers:

If you wish to present a paper, please submit a 300-word abstract to the email address annalisa.bocchetti@unior.it by 30th August 2025.

You will be notified of your results by 15th September.

Subjects

We invite scholars to explore the dynamic and entangled cultural histories of the Western Indian Ocean through the lens of folklore. Focusing on the region stretching from the Persian Gulf and Eastern Africa to the Middle East and western South Asia, the conference seeks to

 interrogate how folkloric expressions (textual, oral, performative, musical, and material) mediate processes of cultural encounter, transformation, and negotiation across maritime worlds.

We invite paper proposals that engage with one or more of the following interconnected themes, which will structure the conference’s sessions:

1 Folklore as Archive: Performance, Resistance, and Maritime Networks

2 Seafaring Knowledge and Narratives of the Sea

3 Material Cultures and Maritime Worlds

Please find more details in the attached file.

      

Presentation

If your abstract is accepted, you will be allowed a slot of 20 minutes for presentation followed by 10 minutes for questions. 

Scientific committee: 

Annalisa Bocchetti (“L’Orientale” University of Naples), Stefania Cavaliere (“L’Orientale” University of Naples), Daniela De Simone (Ghent University), Sabir Badal Khan (“L’Orientale” University of Naples)

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at annalisa.bocchetti@unior.it.

Best regards,

Stefania Cavaliere