'Ethnology Re-Wilded, Re-Grounded, and Re-Enchanted: Encounters in the Morphogenetic Field' Prof Ullrich Kockel 31 March 1pm

As part of the Humanities & Arts Research Cluster (HARC) and the Society, Identity, Landscape & Knowledge (SILK) research cluster theme for 2022 of 'Enchantment and Wonder' Institute for Northern Studies professor Ullrich Kockel will present a seminar titled 'Ethnology Re-Wilded, Re-Grounded, and Re-Enchanted: Encounters in the Morphogenetic Field' on the 31st of March at 1pm.

Drawing on Rupert Sheldrake’s concept of the “morphogenetic field”, the seminar explores the potential of creative ethnology to develop a cultural analysis of human ecological relationships beyond the post-modern cynicism that has destroyed grounded understandings of human life-worlds. Looking towards both historical precedents of holistic, integrated ways of regarding these life-worlds and relationships within them, and some emerging approaches rooted in an ecopoetic aspiration to actively “shape the world into home” (Ernst Bloch), aspects and components of creative ethnological practice are illustrated with examples from fieldwork. The significance of such practice for future research is critically examined.

Ullrich Kockel is Professor of Creative Ethnology at the Institute for Northern Studies, UHI. He taught at Leeds Polytechnic and NUI Galway before receiving his PhD from the University of Liverpool, where he was appointed to the first-ever full-time post in Irish Studies at a British university. Ullrich also taught Geography at University College Cork, and has held chairs in European Studies (University of the West of England Bristol), Ethnology and Folklife (University of Ulster), and Cultural Ecology and Sustainability (Heriot-Watt). He is a Visiting Professor at the Center for Social Anthropology, Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas, Lithuania, and the Latvian Academy of Culture in Rīga, and was President of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF), 2008-13.

To register for the seminar: https://uhi.webex.com/uhi/j.php?RGID=r53548e71d8b5af9a3142e8d8db578d92

To find out more about the 'Enchantment and Wonder' research theme for 2022: Interdisciplinary Research Programmes - Enchantment & Wonder (uhi.ac.uk)