I7: Storytelling, Ritual and Ethical Research
Tracks
7
| Wednesday, December 2, 2026 |
| 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM |
| RH104 |
Overview
Steam: Heritage Futures, Care and Relationality
Paper / Session Submitter
Ms Anna Talasniemi
Doctoral Researcher
Jyväskylä University
Sauna Dialogues – Sauna as a Site for Heritage Futures
Summary Abstract
Sauna Dialogues – Sauna as a Site for Heritage Futures
This presentation introduces Sauna Dialogues, a novel, participatory, and future-oriented research method developed from futures workshops and conducted within the Finnish sauna. Sauna bathing is widely practiced in Finland, and since 2020, sauna culture has been on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Sauna Dialogues combine facilitated conversation with traditional sauna healing practices. The approach responds to critical heritage studies' calls for multidisciplinarity, the democratisation of heritage, and innovative data-collection methods.
The sauna is approached as a multisensory, embodied forum for dialogue, communal meaning-making, and envisioning heritage futures. The sauna's sensory environment evokes memories and connects different temporalities. This raises questions about how a heritage setting strongly tied to the past, can support or hinder futures thinking. The presentation reflects on the potential of engaging in futures within heritage environments and highlights the ethic of care inherent in sauna culture.
This presentation introduces Sauna Dialogues, a novel, participatory, and future-oriented research method developed from futures workshops and conducted within the Finnish sauna. Sauna bathing is widely practiced in Finland, and since 2020, sauna culture has been on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Sauna Dialogues combine facilitated conversation with traditional sauna healing practices. The approach responds to critical heritage studies' calls for multidisciplinarity, the democratisation of heritage, and innovative data-collection methods.
The sauna is approached as a multisensory, embodied forum for dialogue, communal meaning-making, and envisioning heritage futures. The sauna's sensory environment evokes memories and connects different temporalities. This raises questions about how a heritage setting strongly tied to the past, can support or hinder futures thinking. The presentation reflects on the potential of engaging in futures within heritage environments and highlights the ethic of care inherent in sauna culture.
Biographies
Anna Talasniemi is a Finnish arts and culture professional currently pursuing a PhD in Art Education at the University of Jyväskylä. Her dissertation, Sauna Dialogues – Sauna as a Site for Making Heritage Futures, critically examines Finnish sauna culture using a methodology grounded in dialogical aesthetics and futures studies.
Kelsey Doyle
Phd Student
University Of British Coloumbia
The Ethics and Values of Ulithian Relationality and the Making of a Living Research Agreement
Summary Abstract
Concerned with the lack of transparency in western research agreements between institutions and Indigenous communities—which often maintain western agendas—this article shares the process of co-creating Yach Madaf Fangal, the closest Ulithian translation for a community-led memorandum of understanding for anthropological research. Guided by Ulithan values and protocols that are often shared amongst the Remathau (descendants of the ocean), the authors of this article (Ulithian and non-Ulithian) adopt an anti-colonial stance toward anthropological research in Ulithi, Federated States of Micronesia, by ensuring that Ulithian relationality is central to the research processes. This article does not seek to universalize the Yach Madaf Fangal across other Indigenous contexts; rather, it attends to the specificity of Ulithian histories, values, and protocols. Therefore, this article aims to rectify the anthropological record on Ulithi and situate a Ulithian perspective on ethical approaches to contemporary anthropological research.
Biographies
Magul – John B. Rulmal Jr. (he/him) is an Ulithian community member whose advocacy work is informed by his genealogy and the interconnected cultural and social systems that organize Ulithian life. His place in this ancestral structure allows him to serve as one of many stewards of community leadership, conservation, and cultural continuity. He understands his role as a temporary custodian of inherited knowledge and practices. He is committed to upholding, enacting, and passing on Ulithian values so they remain alive and relevant for future generations.
Kelsey C. Doyle (she/her) is a filmmaker and visual anthropologist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Okanagan, on the ancestral and unceded Syilx Territory. A PhD student in the Collaborative + Experimental Ethnography Lab, her research focuses on Indigenous-led filmmaking, intergenerational knowledge, and ecological stewardship in Ulithi atoll, Micronesia, at the invitation of the Ulithian community.
Fiona P. McDonald, PhD (she/her) is a visual anthropologist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Okanagan, on the ancestral and unceded Syilx Territory. She is the Founder and Director of the Collaborative + Experimental Ethnography Lab (www.ce2lab.org). Her research explores material culture, digital tools, social change, accessibility, and climate justice.
Mr Yusheng Lei
PhD Candidate
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Overhearing Discontinuous Temporality: A Heritagized Bell in and around Xi’an
Summary Abstract
This paper destabilizes the linearity of time through overhearing a heritagized bell in and around Xi’an, a well-known ancient capital in northwestern China, whose historical storytelling perpetuates a Longue durée ‘the greatest Chinese Civilization.’ The bell, with its affective ringing and material testimony, is assimilated into the historical continuity and deployed as a historical-sonic imaginary for national ceremonies.
Nonetheless, the bell’s presence could be a threshold of reckoning that how heritage relates with and unsettles the past and present. That is, the discontinuous temporality and tumultuous symbolizations when the bell is overheard as ‘something else being present’ amidst different sounds and historical fragments on site.
A disruption to linearized historical storytelling in Xi’an, the bell is evoked and invited by overhearing (and other ways of listening), which unsettles the multiple and relational temporalities and realities while pondering the boundaries of ethnographic presence and historical work.
Nonetheless, the bell’s presence could be a threshold of reckoning that how heritage relates with and unsettles the past and present. That is, the discontinuous temporality and tumultuous symbolizations when the bell is overheard as ‘something else being present’ amidst different sounds and historical fragments on site.
A disruption to linearized historical storytelling in Xi’an, the bell is evoked and invited by overhearing (and other ways of listening), which unsettles the multiple and relational temporalities and realities while pondering the boundaries of ethnographic presence and historical work.
Biographies
Yusheng Lei is currently a PhD candidate in Department of Music at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His research and curatorial interests sit between Sound Studies, Experimental Ethnographic Methods, and Heritage/Memory Studies. He is now coordinating a postgrad study group on Critical Heritage Studies funded by CUHK.
