The duration of the NEWREL project is from Summer 2006 through Summer 2009. The collaboration is more than just the sum of its parts - we are linking the projects through common research questions and common methodologies. In order to achieve this, we've scheduled three workshops throughout the life of the project.

First Project Workshop, 14-16 September 2006, Tartu, Estonia

The first workshop was hosted by the team of Art Leete at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Over these three days, the NEWREL team worked intensively to develop a common research agenda. The goal was to develop methods that would enhance comparability across the collaboration without destroying the originality of the individual projects. As a result of brainstorming, we discovered three areas that we determined held the most potential for cross-project comparison, and we formed standing working groups to develop these areas: 

*Survey of the religious landscape – Each of us will explore the breadth and depth of   what’s “out there” at our field sites in terms of religious activity.

*Visual data – We will collect both video and photographic data, but this will be more than mere documentation; we will use this data to visually develop theory.

*Discourse analysis - Each of us will collect an inventory of discursive genres detectable at our field sites. These will help us investigate the relationship between practices and representations.

(From left to right: Alexander Panchenko, Tatiana Bulgakova, Eva Toulouze, David Koester, Art Leete, Florian Siegl, Karina Lukin, Patrick Plattet, Virginie Vaté, Patty Gray, Piret Koosa. Photo courtesy Patty Gray)

BOREAS Programme Launching Meeting, 15-17 October 2006, Cambridge, England

The European Science Foundation's EUROCORES program held a "launching meeting" for the BOREAS Programme, which was hosted by Piers Vitebsky, a key founder of the BOREAS program, at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England. At this meeting, representatives from all seven of the BOREAS projects met together to discuss the goals and plans of the overall BOREAS program. Nearly all members of the NEWREL team were present at this meeting.

BOREAS Programme Data Management Meeting, 19-20 February 2007, Paris, France

The European Science Foundation’s EUROCORES programme sponsored a meeting of representatives of all BOREAS CRPs to discuss the establishment of transdisciplinary and transnational data archives that fully take into account the specificities and sensitivities of humanities and social science data, as well as the challenges posed by the involvement of non-academic communities in research and outreach. Patty Gray, Art Leete, Niivo Liglas, Eva Toulouze, and Virginie Vate represented the NEWREL project at the Paris meeting. BOREAS project participants heard presentations from 13 non-BOREAS experts in various aspects of sharing and archiving data, who provided a wide variety of possible models to choose from in designing a BOREAS-specific system. As a result, the BOREAS participants present agreed in principle to create cyberinfrastructure, with metadata and a common portal, for the purpose of sharing BOREAS project data among participants and with the public - in appropriate ways. This remains an ongoing project, but it is hoped that the results of the effort will demonstrate that circumpolar humanities and social science researchers can play a pioneering role, on both sides of the Atlantic, in identifying the necessary elements for appropriately handling humanities and social science data.

(In photos: Above, Art Leete chats with Scott Polar Research Institute director of ethnology Piers Vitebsky over lunch at UNESCO in Paris; at left, Liivo Niglas and Patty Gray discussion possibilities for collaboration in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. Photos courtesy of Eva Toulouze.)

Fieldschool in Kamchatka, 1-10 July 2007

David Koester organized a summer field school and conference in Kamchatka that brought together some members of NEWREL along with members of other BOREAS programme projects. The primary aim was to bring BOREAS participants together in a new geographical/cultural area where they could get comparative insights on their own work and contribute their perspectives on the NEWREL project.  The secondary aim was to enhance the annual conference and summer field school organized by Vitus Bering State University of Kamchatka by bringing scholars from Europe. The field school also benefited Kamchatkan students who attended both the conference and the field workshop with the visiting scholars.

(In photos: NEWREL team members Viktoria Petrasheva and Tatiana Bulgakova in Kamchatka; Field School participants with the dance troupe "Lach".)

Second Project Workshop, 22-24 November 2007, St. Petersburg, Russia

The second project workshop was brilliantly hosted by the European University of St. Petersburg. At this workshop, NEWREL team members came together to discuss their first round of fieldwork and began to compare their results. Each team member made a presentation of initial research results. 

We were joined by a few graduate students who are new to the project since the first year: Alexandra Antohin, MA student of Patty Gray at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; Tatiana Degai, MA student of David Koester at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; Diana Il’ina, MA student of Alexander Panchenko at St. Petersburg State University; Tatiana Vagramenko, MA student of Sergei Shtyrkov at the European University at St. Petersburg; and Laur Vallikivi, PhD student of Piers Vitebsky at the University of Cambridge. Art Leete's student Piret Koosa, who was present at the first workshop, returned to join us. We are very pleased with the progress of these fine students.

In addition, several guests were invited, established or budding experts in the study of religion, to comment upon our work to date and join the discussion. These included Piers Vitebsky, Assistant Director of Research at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge; Olga Rybakova, PhD Candidate at the D.F. Ustinov Baltic State University in St. Petersburg and an Evangelical Baptist minister in Magadan; Larisa Ivtagina, PhD student at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow; Joseph Long, PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen; and Eleanor Peers, PhD Student at the University of Cambridge.

(Seated, left to right: Tatiana Degai, Alexandra Antohin, Patty Gray, Alexander Panchenko; middle "rows", each face in order from left to right: Art leete, Liivo Niglas, Piret Koosa, Joe Long, Eva Toulouze, Aimar Ventsel, Laur Vallikivi, Piers Vitebsky, Olga Rybakova, Patrick Plattet, Larisa Ivtagina, a friend of Larisa's, David Koester, Tatiana Bulgakova, Viktoria Petrasheva, Anna-Leena Siikala, Arno Survo; standing up in rear: Virginie Vaté, Sergei Shtyrkov. Photo courtesy Patty Gray.)

Third Project Workshop, December 2008

The third project workshop will be hosted by the University of Helsinki, Finland, during the Fall of 2008. By this time, our field research will be essentially completed, and we will be meeting with draft reports on our fieldwork to present to one another for comment. The finalized papers will be published as an edited volume, and should include some collaborative efforts among two or more members of different individual projects. Work on the volume is expected to be completed in 2009.