Knowing place through film and audiovisual media
9th to 12th February 2026
Alta, Norway
Conference call for papers: 'Knowing place through film and audiovisual media'
Places, cultures, and ways of knowing the world create one another. This academic conference concerns the ways in which films, series, and other audiovisual media and arts serve not only to represent place and home, but also to imagine it, understand it, and produce it for the future.
All cultural productions are created from particular positions, perspectives, and geographical bases. This is true for everything from blockbuster movies that aim for global audiences, to short films addressing localised issues and concerns, to videogames that place players in digital landscapes. The knowledge systems and epistemologies that organise sense of place and space are inescapable.
Organised by Island Dynamics in collaboration with UiT The Arctic University of Norway – Alta and the Center for Caribbean Studies at Hangzhou Normal University, this academic conference on 'Knowing place through film and audiovisual media' asks how audiovisual media and arts interact with, are influenced by, and construct people (folk), place, and culture - including folklore, Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, and other ways of knowing that are commonly conceptualised as local or culturally specific.
We invite presentations concerning how all three elements (people, place, and culture) are mutually constitutive and present in either particular artworks, at a broader level within communities or groups, or more broadly still from a comparative perspective. How do scenography, location, and setting reflect or inform engagements with place? How do audiovisual media interact with their creators' understandings of place and their place in the world - either place as it is or place as they believe it should be? How do people working in audiovisual media and arts create and challenge narrations and representations of societies, places, and cultures? How are these media used to promote particular political, cultural, and geographical perspectives, especially perspectives from the margins or from disadvantaged groups? Can they be used to parochialise dominant or hegemonic perspectives? How do these dominant or hegemonic perspectives themselves reflect folk knowledges and taken-for-granted understandings of the world?
Abstract submission
Presentations will last 20 minutes and will be followed by a period for questions. Abstracts should be 150-200 words long. The deadline for abstracts is 31 August 2025. Abstracts will be considered on a rolling basis, so if you submit early, you can get a response early, giving you more time to secure funding and register at the early registration rate.
About Alta
Alta, Norway (population 16,000) is a town at the heart of the Arctic, famous for its northern lights and amazing cultural landscape. Long a centre of Sámi and Kven culture and the biggest city in Finnmark county, Alta has undergone complex processes in the construction of ideas of home, place, and homeland.
Schedule
9 February: A boat trip out into the fjord (possibility of seeing whales) and cultural activities in Alta.
10-11 February: Conference presentations held at UiT Alta.
12 February: A dog sled excursion and cultural activities in Alta.
Registration
Registration 1: Participation in the conference presentations held at UiT Alta on 10-11 February (Fee: 215 euros).
Registration 2: Participation in the boat trip on 9 February and the conference presentations on 10-11 February (Fee: 523 euros).
Registration 3: Participation in the dog sled excursion on 12 February and the conference presentations on 10-11 February (Fee: 446 euros).
Registration 4: Full registration, including participation in the boat trip on 9 February, the dog sled excursion on 12 February and the conference presentations on 10-11 February (Fee: 736 euros).
Registration 5: Participation in the conference presentations on 10-11 February 2026 for students and staff at UiT and individuals living in Alta (Fee: free of charge).
The above registration fees are valid until 31 September 2025, after which all fees will rise by 75 euros.
Venue and accommodation
The conference will be held at UiT The Arctic University of Norway - Alta. The university campus is located a short walk from the centre of Alta and its various hotels, such as Scandic Alta, Thon Hotel Alta, and Canyon Hotell.
Publication opportunity
Interested authors are encouraged to submit papers to the peer-reviewed journal Folk, Knowledge, Place. Papers will need to match the journal's theme and scope. Conference registrants who submit papers before 31 October 2025 will benefit from expedited editorial handling. All conference registrants who submit papers by this deadline must commit to undertaking two double-blind peer reviews for the journal within the subsequent two months. The aim is to create a special section of the journal on the conference theme. Although we strongly encourage article submissions, it is not necessary to submit a paper to the journal or to have a paper accepted for publication in order to participate in the conference. To learn more about journal publication, please contact co-editor-in-chief Adam Grydehøj at
agrydehoj@islanddynamics.org
Organisation
Co-Convenors: Stine Agnete Sand (UiT The Arctic University of Norway - Alta) and Martin Schantz Faurholt (Editor Film Education).
Organised by: Island Dynamics, in collaboration with UiT The Arctic University of Norway – Alta and Center for Caribbean Studies at Hangzhou Normal University.
