International Finno-Ugric Students’ Conference will take place in Riga this spring

IFUSCO was first organized in 1984 in Göttingen, Germany, to promote contacts among Finno-Ugric students. 26 students from the Netherlands and Germany participated. Currently, the conference is held every year in a different city (and preferably in a different country) and is hosted by students from different universities. The conference has been organized in cities like Helsinki, Budapest, Munich and many others.

The 2018 conference at the University of Tartu represented 12 countries with more than 170 students. But in 2019 the University of Vienna hosted the IFUSCO where University of Latvia representatives for the first time in 35 years were granted the honour of hosting the conference in Riga, Latvia.

IFUSCO is an annual conference organised by students for students. This year it will take place from 5 to 9 May in Riga, UL premises. During the conference week, Riga will be home to about 170 Uralic and Finno-Ugric students and promising researchers from around the world. The UL students are proud of the fact that during this conference special attention will be paid to the Latvian indigenous people – the Livonians, their language, culture and traditions.

The Livonians are a Finno-Ugric people of Baltic origin, who played an important role in the formation of the Latvian language and culture, therefore the Livonian traditional culture is included in The Latvian Culture Canon, furthermore, the role of Livonian tradition in the formation of Latvian identity is strongly emphasised in the Preamble of the Constitution of Latvia.

The development of international relations, cooperation, the use of foreign languages, as well as the exchange of scientific and cultural experience with participants from Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Germany, Russia and other countries is also a great opportunity to the students in Latvia and the conference participants – our foreign guests.

This conference is a contribution to the development of science and interdisciplinary research and a great contribution towards our emerging researchers. It is a unique and one of the largest student-run projects in Latvia in 2020, as well as an important event for the development of Finno-Ugric studies in Latvia.

During the conference, participants will also have the opportunity to participate in various cultural events. Particular emphasis will be put on the main idea of the organisers, for example, an excursion to the Livonian Coast, as well as language masterclasses and excursions in Riga. The attention will be drawn not only to the Livonian cultural heritage, but also to the Latvian cultural aspects.

The main topic of IFUSCO is the Finno-Ugric / Uralic people, their culture, history, language economy, etc. One of the long-kept traditions of IFUSCO has been the three-language-rule, according to which each presentation must consist of three different languages – one used for the abstract, one for the handout or presentation slides and one for the oral presentation. Of these three languages, at least one should be a Finno-Ugric / Uralic one. To read more about this tradition and the working languages of the conference see the FAQ section of our website.

You can contact us via the official e-mail – ifuscoriga@gmail.com, Facebook page or VK (В Контакте).

If you wish to get acquainted with the history of the conference, we recommend you to visit the Tartu Conference Facebook and VK (В Контакте) page: https://ifusco.ut.ee/, https://facebook.com/IFUSCO2018/, https://vk.com/ifusco2018/, as well as the homepage of last year's conference (Vienna, Austria).

Organisers of the conference are inviting volunteers who want to gain experience in an international event to apply via the official e-mail: ifuscoriga@gmail.com.

See you in #IFUSCO2020!