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Short abstract

Research explores Slovak pastoralists' voice in the Transhumance nomination. While the 2003 Convention emphasizes community participation, the state retains final authority, raising concerns about representativeness. Using participatory observation, it maps out actors and power dynamics.

Long abstract

This research explores the involvement of the pastoral community in Slovakia in the nomination of Transhumance on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. While community participation is central to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the inscription process involves multiple stakeholders. The final decision on inscription remains within the authority of state parties, raising questions about the representativeness of pastoral community involved.

Using participant observation and ethnographic interviews, this research examines the inclusion of the pastoral community's voice during the real-time Transhumance inscription process. It maps the network of actors involved, their interrelations, and the power dynamics at play unwriting the narrative of pastoral communities as remote, timeless and backward. Drawing on the theory of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007), the study critically analyses the extent to which the inclusion of local pastoral communities aligns with the 2003 Convention's stated goals and interrogates the broader implications of representativeness of pastoral communities in safeguarding living heritage. The poster features a detailed network analysis of the actors involved.

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Short abstract

The Romanian summer solstice feast is in decline in the rural areas. But since 2013, it started to be celebrated in the cities, under the influence of a new feast of the Romanian national shirt. The poster sketches the main lines of forging of a new national identity through an invented tradition.

Long abstract

The summer solstice feast, celebrated all over Europe around 24th of June, takes two forms in Romania: one – Drăgaica – was traditionally related to the domesticated plants, while the other – Sânziene – was linked to the healing power of the savage plants. Both faces of the feast have almost disappeared, being encountered in many regions only as revivals.

But in the last few years, things started to change, in an accelerated rhythm. In 2013, an NGO dedicated to the promotion of Romanian values proposed the day of 24th of June to become The Universal Day of the Romanian Shirt (Ie). The new, invented feast was thus legitimated through the connection to the old feast of the summer solstice, when, as some Romanian folklorists claim (without having real data), the good fairies used to dance and bless the healing plants. This claim led to a plethora of new, invented practices, with little to no connection to the old solstice feast. Even more, this newly shaped feast got the role of forging or enhancing the Romanian identity, through the appeal to the Romanian blouse as well as to the ”traditional” (read: invented) feast of the solstice. The present poster tries to outline how the reshaping of the feast leads to the reshaping of the national identity.

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This study explores women’s experiences with parental leave , focusing on cultural expectations, work-life balance, and career reintegration. Using narratives from mothers, it proposes fiscally neutral flexible policies reflecting modern values addressing fairness and rethinking gendered labor norms

Long abstract

This study examines parental leave policies from the perspectives of women’s lived experiences, addressing the congress theme of “unwriting” established norms around labor, gender, and family dynamics. It interrogates what has been done, what could be done, and what should have been done to align these policies with evolving societal values and economic realities.

Through an anthropological lens, the research explores how parental leave policies intersect with cultural expectations, work-life balance aspirations, and career reintegration. Drawing on narratives from mothers in Israel over the past six years, it reflects on societal shifts, including the rise of hybrid and remote work models, and their implications for fairness, flexibility, and continuity in the workforce.

The study proposes an innovative approach to unwriting traditional policy frameworks by identifying key elements of an ideal, fiscally neutral parental leave system. These elements aim to accommodate diverse family needs while balancing economic sustainability and gender equity. By analyzing parental leave as a dynamic intersection of personal and cultural dimensions, the research contributes to rethinking public policy to reflect contemporary values.

This דstudy invites engagement with the medium itself, reflecting on the relationship between form and content, and fostering dialogue on the role of unwriting in shaping progressive parental leave policies for future generations.

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Short abstract

In 2022, the saltwater lagoon Mar Menor became the first ecosystem with legal personality in Europe as a result of a large-scale grassroots mobilization. What happens if a "natural" entity is legally represented as a subject? Can that be a tool for a multi-species democracy in the Anthropocene?

Long abstract

In this Poster Presentation, I will present the results and preliminary interpretation from data gathered during my first extended research stay at the saltwater lagoon Mar Menor in the southern Spanish region of Murcia. After severe eutrophication events caused mainly by agricultural run-off, the unique but highly degraded ecosystem has been granted rights and legal personality as a result of a law fought for by a large grassroots campaign. Stuck in the constitutional court until end of 2024, the new bodies that are to represent the Mar Menor can finally be instituted and can start working. But how can the interests of an ecosystem be noticed, listened to, interpreted and effectively translated for the arenas of law and politics? How are these representations done in practice and how are they being contested? What does the regeneration of the lagoon mean in a Rights of Nature Framework and in the Anthropocene where conservation baselines become less and less obvious in the face of global environmental change? Does the relation to the lagoon and its governance change and what difference does that make for stakeholders and the everyday life of people? Can the relationality that constitutes the more-than-human world be articulated in law?

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Short abstract

In March 2025, we carried out a collective, speculative performance that transformed a site obscure in its mundanity—a snow deposit site—into a tourist attraction.

Long abstract

Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change. They are ‘good to think with', as glacial ice does not just melt but the melt is imbued with cultural, scientific, political and aesthetic meanings. In March 2025, we carried out a collective, speculative performance that transformed a site obscure in its mundanity—a snow deposit site—into a tourist attraction. Our performance was an attempt to experiment whether re-framing the very mundane relationships between snow and the city could expose and open up new possibilities for understanding the climate changing everyday realities of the urbanized Arctic. By making the snow deposit site into an urban glacier through specific, imported touristic practices, we aimed to further examine the contemporary ontologies of the melting cryoscapes. Re-imagining an everyday site, like the snow dumps, could open a possibility to potential new ways of recognizing, researching, and thinking with climate change related environmental loss.

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Short abstract

This poster explores the cultural and spiritual value of the ocean, emphasising its role in well-being, healing, and identity. It advocates for integrating these dimensions into marine management, addressing historical divides, socio-economic disparities, and access inequalities.

Long abstract

The sea exerts a powerful influence over coastal communities, shaping their social and cultural landscapes through a variety of intricate and diverse interactions. While these connections highlight the ocean’s cultural value and its essential place in coastal lives, they are neither uniform nor equally distributed across communities. The research presented on this poster advocates for a broader recognition of these relationships within marine management frameworks, pressing for the inclusion of spiritual and well-being dimensions that are presently overlooked. The poster highlights themes of spirituality, cultural expression, interconnectedness with nature, healing, and the sense of access and loss emerge as crucial aspects of these relationships. This poster shows how differing relationships and understandings of the ocean expose historical divides between communities and ongoing socio-economic disparities that affect access to the sea. These narratives underscore the ocean’s role in supporting health and well-being, affirming the need to incorporate such values into marine management policies.

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Short abstract

This study experiments with creative ethnographic methods to understand intangible cultural heritage (ICH) related with physical sites, such as Callanish in Scotland. Our relational approach goes beyond traditional ethnographic writing also by integrating multidisciplinary XR representations.

Long abstract

Exploring the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of megalithic sites, such as the Callanish standing stones on Scotland's Western Isles, involve Emotional, Experiential, and Environmental (3E) dimensions that can aid in attending to diverse societal challenges.

Our study, part of the international multidisciplinary research project INT-ACT ("Intangible cultural heritage, bridging the past, present, and future"), leverages creative ethnographic and narrative methods to recontextualize heritage interpretation. Our methodology employs sensory walking interviews and storytelling workshops to capture the richness and diversity of personal experiences and multisensory environmental relationships associated with the Callanish standing stones. Besides relational, situated methods, the project steps beyond traditional ethnographic writing by integrating multidisciplinary XR representations.

The creation of immersive eXtended Reality (XR) environments allows us to present approaches and observations from situated experiences and stories shared on-site in an interactive way, thus potentially "unwriting" conventional master narratives and enabling a multi-sensory engagement with cultural heritage, in an attempt to promote more equitable and inclusive modes of representation. This poster presentation outlines our methodological strategies and preliminary findings, advocating for a participatory and dynamic approach to heritage research that emphasizes the lived experiences and affective environmental contexts of megalithic sites.