Second Call for Papers: =?windows-1252?Q?=93Drinking_and_driving_is_so_much_fun=94=3A_?=Arctic workshop at the University of Tartu (31.May-1.June, 2013)

[Elena Gapova]

Second Call for Papers

“Drinking and driving is so much fun”: Arctic workshop of the University of
Tartu

University of Tartu, Estonia.
31.May-1.June, 2013

The song “Drinking and Driving” was recorded by British punk band The
Business in the late 1970s and became an instant hit among beer loving
punks.
The song associated drinking with fun and collective action (to put it
mildly) demonstrating that beer drinking can be evaluated as a process with
a positive social meaning.

Punks are not the only group of people who believe that drinking is related
to the pleasant side of life and is unavoidable in certain situations. The
use of alcohol and its social meaning as a topic of research has an
impressive history. However, in Arctic studies, alcohol is primarily
discussed in the context of negative themes: alcohol related violence,
suicide, the decline of indigenous traditions, culture shock and other
misfortunes that result from excessive drinking. Despite the scholarly
approach to alcohol use, people still continue to drink, an activity
primarily associated with leisure time, joyfulness and celebration. Alcohol
is deeply embedded within many rituals such as the greeting of an honoured
guest, a demonstration of masculinity or as a part of religious ceremony.

This workshop at the University of Tartu explores the topic and seeks
answers as to why people drink in the Arctic and whether there is anything
specific in the use of alcohol that distinguishes this region from others.
We examine a wide range of papers that discuss the social, political or
cultural meanings of indigenous and non-indigenous alcohol use in the
Arctic. Our aim is to discuss how alcohol’s agency is conceptualised in the
region and how these concepts vary in different ethnic, religious, gender
and age groups. Also, we are interested in the role of alcohol in field
research situations and how questions of fieldwork ethics are related to
this. Since we understand that barely anyone has conducted fieldwork
specifically on alcohol use (even if many of us have consumed it together
with our field research friends) we invite people to present their
unpolished papers, hypotheses or parts of their PhD project.

Please send your abstracts of up to 300 words to Aimar.Ventsel at ut.ee by the
25th of February 2013.

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