Join the Folklore Museums Network, Historic Environment Scotland and Museums Galleries Scotland in this collaborative workshop looking at the identification, interpretation and collection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The day will investigate the issues and challenges facing curators, archivists, archaeologists, and community heritage groups working with intangible culture, and explore the potential, opportunities for promoting future collaboration, capacity building and support in Scotland. It will be useful for anyone with an interest in cultural heritage and folklore.

Featuring a line up of various speakers, focusing on topics such as:

- Material culture, archaeology, landscapes and museums

- Storytelling, oral histories, ICH and museums

- Recording Folklore and ICH in Scotland

- Community engagement, inclusion and diversity in working with intangible culture

Please see list of speakers and topics below:

Hugh Cheape

Taking forward Material Culture and Folklore: our engagement with people, place and regional ethnology

Bio: Professor Hugh Cheape joined the University of the Highlands and Islands in 2007 to set up a postgraduate research programme, MSc Cultar Dùthchasach agus Eachdraidh na Gàidhealtachd ('Material Culture and Gàidhealtachd History') in Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture. The research draws on a career in the National Museums Scotland.

Tina Paphitis

The Place of Folklore in Archaeological Landscapes: Plurality, Participation and Practice

Tina Paphitis is currently a Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Oslo, examining, among other things, the potential for digital folklore to broaden participation with folklore archives. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow in Folklore at the University of Hertfordshire and was formerly a Lecturer (Teaching) in Heritage and Museum Studies at UCL and Assistant Librarian of the Folklore Society. Her PhD (UCL 2014) was on the medieval to contemporary folklore of archaeological sites in Britain, exploring the ways in which folklore enhances approaches to landscape and public engagement. Her interests include legends and landscapes, environmental/ecocritical folklore, folklore and archaeology in fantasy and horror literature, and integrating folklore in critical heritage studies.

Jeremy Harte

‘These boots were made for walking: haunted objects in museums’

Jeremy Harte is a researcher into folklore and archaeology, with a particular interest in tales of encounters with other worlds. He sits on the Council of the Folklore Society, wrote Explore Fairy Traditions, and is publishing Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape. He is curator of Bourne Hall Museum in Surrey, and lives on site with a seasonal colony of ladybirds in a converted butler’s lodge, where his children have stopped worrying about him.

Rhona Ramsey

'Nacken chaetrie: finding the material culture of Gypsy/Travellers in Scottish museums'

Rhona Ramsay has a background in learning and access within museums. She has recently completed a PhD on the material culture of Gypsy/Travellers in Scottish museums.

Miriam Morris

Talking Statues Case study: Archives, Walks and Talks

Miriam Morris is the National Development Officer for the Scottish Storytelling Forum which is part of TRACS, a national network that sees traditional arts as a vital and diverse element of Scottish life.

Gauri Raje

Passing down stories: Working across generations with migrant stories

Gauri Raje is an anthropologist and storyteller who works in the UK and India with adults and vulnerable groups. She is especially interested in the concepts of witnessing in storytelling, translation and multilingualism and embodied nature of creating stories.

Valentina Bold

'The Kinmont Willie Sword and other Tales of Mettle'

Dr Valentina Bold is Heritage Project Officer with the Crichton Trust, internationally known for her work on Scottish literature and cultural heritage. Her publications include Robert Burns' Merry Muses of Caledonia, James Hogg: A Bard of Nature's Making and, with Tom McKean, Northern Folk: Living Traditions of North East Scotland. She has developed projects with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, American Folklife Center and Edinburgh's Museum of Childhood. In 2018, with funding from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, she co-organised an exhibition with Dumfries and Annan museums, bringing together material culture and intangible heritage through an allegedly sixteenth-century sword, a story and a song.