About us
Nordisk Etnologisk Folkloristisk Arbejdsgruppe – Nordic Network for Ethnology and Folklore
NEFA-Norden is a Nordic network for students and young researchers within the studies of folklore and ethnology.
Ambitions
- To encourage cooperation between ethnology and folklore in the Nordic countries.
- To communicate contemporary research
- To promote knowledge about the structural, scientific and educational development within the Nordic departments.
- To promote and support relations between Nordic students for example through mutual Nordic research-projects.
Background
NEFA was founded in 1963 by a group of students whose primary object was to gain more knowledge about ethnology and folklore in the Nordic countries. They wished to create a scientific network in which they could benefit from the Nordic language-similarity. As a step towards this NEFA arranged an anthropological inspired seminar about fieldwork in 1965. During the years these sorts of seminars have become a recurring event. A journal, Nord Nytt, has also been founded to communicate contemporary research. Nord Nytt is now the leading journal of ethnology and folklore in the Nordic countries.
Organisation
NEFA-Norden consists of regional NEFA-branches throughout the Nordic countries and Estonia. The superior institution in NEFA-Norden is the council, which assembles twice a year. The NEFA-council consists of representatives from all the regional NEFA-branches, the secretariat, the Nord Nytt board of editors and the head of the seminar-group.
Committees and regional branches
The “Kursusuttskut” (seminargroup) is responsible for the NEFA seminars. At each seminar a committee is formed to arrange and plan the seminar.
The Committee of the journal edits and publishes Nord Nytt. The themes of Nord Nytt are often focused on a specific subject and a large number of researchers and students write reviews as well as other articles for the journal.
The regional branches are the actual foundation of NEFA. They each work toward a fulfilment of the above listed NEFA ambitions. The regional branches each define their own work, which ranges from social to academic get-togethers.