ABOUT
FCRE brings together volunteers both academic and practice-based, and is working towards developing community-led public engagement, with a vision for collaboration and exchange between the various artists, practitioners, organisations, stakeholders, academics and postgraduate researchers exploring all aspects of rituals, festivity and celebrations including: ceremonies, parades, combined arts, festive atmospheres, feelings and emotions, labour and leisure, digital media celebration and festivity, food in festivals, festival culture impacts on education, heritage and historical museums, archival research and curation, tourism and development, sport celebration, night-time festivals and leisure (night-time economy, urban night-lives, light festivals, nightlife in the Caribbean and Caribbean diasporic carnival (mas', panorama, soca, and Dimanche Gras), religion, geography, tourism and fandom, costumery, performance, parties, bazaars, feasts, fairs, expositions, rites, balls, music, dance, family reunions, banquets, harvest festivities, lore, medieval spectacle, medieval re-enactment, gatherings (marches, memorials, community gatherings, rallies, commemorations, tributes, public and national holidays) performances, etc.
Our main aims are: to explore, expand and articulate current approaches within the field; to examine the significance of festivals in all of their manifestations; to explore the various festival arts, practices, and processes, and how individuals and community groups within different cultures share their knowledge of craft-making (we also aim to understand the importance of festival arts); to create a membership directory for festival studies that will help the field to advance; to develop and design courses that can be of support to various educational departments through social partnerships; to learn more about the kind of academic research being conducted, where it is conducted and by whom; and to conduct workshops and annual conferences in order to provide a platform for scholars, postgraduate students, and artists to share and advance the study of festivals.
Our scope of interest extends to all arts, humanities, and social science fields: for example, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, education, performance studies, folk studies, religious studies, geography, history, performing arts (music, theatre, and dance), media and communication studies, cross-cultural studies, and visual culture.
APPROACHES
We embrace inter-, multi-, trans- and cross-disciplinary approaches, for example, diaspora studies, folk studies, labour studies, leisure studies, medieval studies, religious studies, social and economic studies, tourism studies, and youth studies.
AUTOETHNOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NARRATIVE INQUIRY, PERSONAL NARRATIVES (REFLEXIVITY IN THE STUDY OF CULTURE)
"Autoethnography is a method that allows for both personal and cultural critique. Because people's lives and ideologies are influenced by multiple cultural dimensions
and relationships..." (​Boylorn, Orbe, 2016).
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THE COSTUMED BODY: DRESS, MATERIALITY ATMOSPHERES, AND THE EXPERIENTIAL IN FASHION STUDIES
"Like any material object, clothing can be looked upon in terms of its brute concrete reality or as an element in some greater conceptual scheme transcending its mere materiality" (Corrigan, 2008).
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ART, AGENCY, PERFORMANCE, ARTIFACTS: AESTHETICS
AND HISTORY
"...Other rituals, whether religious or social, may turn into aesthetic situations.
Religious rituals sometimes become full-fledged theatre, and living drama often
occurs at other ceremonies, celebrations, and festivals...."
(Light, Smith, 2005).
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MUSIC AND SOUND: SPACE, MEMORY, COMMUNITY MUSIC, TECHNOLOGY, THE LIVED EXPERIENCE
"Musical experience is always embodied, and shares the irreducible character of the body"
(Warren, 2014).
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FOOD STUDIES: CULTURE, MEMORY, HISTORY, POLITICS, GLOBALISATION, TOURISM, AND THE SENSORY NATURE OF FOOD
"...The sensory nature of food acts as a powerful evocation of memory, bringing situations far distant from the present into reach..." (Gosden, 2008).
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CRAFTWORK: ENTREPRENEURIALISM, LABOR, APPRENTICESHIPS, COMMUNITY CRAFTING, PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF MAKING
"While physically engaged in designing and making, the human body has its own
challenges to overcome. At a motor level, the craft person must resolve how to
take-up good postures, form correct grasps, coordinate bi-manual practices,
and perform fluid and economic movements" (Marchand, 2017).
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“Festival is an event, a social phenomenon, encountered in virtually all human cultures” (Falassi, 1987, p. 1).