5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ

Image copyright: Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin II

Sheep on the South Downs Way © Stuart Robinson, 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ

We are seeking contributions for a conference investigating traditional arts, crafts, cultures and folk music in the Sussex region. Our aim is to share understanding and respect for the past where it can support future flourishing of communities, increase knowledge of our diverse heritages and consider our connections in a world of ecological fragility and social fracture. We are especially interested in popular cultures connected to local land in neglected or under-represented rural or semi-rural Sussex. This includes farming heritage, endangered heritage crafts, arts in the South Downs National Park and Living Biosphere, folk music and lore, oral histories of travelling and migration in, through and across Sussex, village greens, city green spaces and edges and suburban gardens. What ways have previous generations creatively responded to local landscapes in their working and everyday lives? How will we do so in the future? What can we learn from traditional cultures and ways of life – within Sussex and from global majorities and cultural groups connected to Sussex – to help us live sustainably? What particular experiments can the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ undertake as a parkland campus with its own rural heritage and a commitment to sustainable development? We are also keen to explore the role of culture in understanding non-human species from the grasses of chalk Downland to grazing farm animals, sea-kelp to larks, and where cultural tools can help to support co-existence and stewarding.

Speakers will include , Cultural Heritage Lead for the South Downs National Park Authority; , artist, writer and local cultural activist, Caroline Lucas, Professor of Practice in Environmental Sustainability at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ and former leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion; , Councillor at Lewes District Council and a lead for the Rights of the River Ouse; , Director of the Knepp Wildlife Foundation and Sussex smallholder. The day will also premiere a site-specific drama about the history of Sussex-campus land by award-winning playwright  and music and dance from , acclaimed young Sussex-infused folk stars. Other wonderful presenters to be announced in due course.

The conference will emphasise practical or collaborative knowledge. In addition to researchers, we are interested in hearing from dancers, artists, musicians, landworkers, farmers, rangers, archivists, craftspeople, curators and storytellers. We hope to challenge stereotypes of a pastoral and elitist county in a day of critical and celebratory work, ‘retelling’ Sussex through sounds, sites and stories.

Themes for presenters might include:

• Popular arts including: folk songs, music and song collecting; visual arts, design and traditional methods, materials; dance, festivals;
• Folklore, story-telling, magic, myth and ritual, ‘weird Sussex’, folk horror and fantasy;
• Craft making and materials; endangered or revived heritage crafts; intangible and tangible cultural heritage policy and practice;
• Place identities including; the local, regional, ‘provincial’ and ‘rural’ Sussex; travelling cultures, migration and cultures of travelling, plurality of Sussex;
• Belonging, inclusion, exclusion, including: decolonising folk culture initiatives; Gypsy-Roma-Traveller cultural heritage; women, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion in relation to Sussex places; rural working-class histories; disability and differently abled places;
• Access to the countryside and development, including national parks; natural-cultural heritage links and tensions; dog walking; walking, trailing, rambling, immersive arts, tourism
• Histories of and new approaches to Sussex archaeology, palaeontology
• Posthuman flourishing; non-human species rights and relationships
• Farming and land use cultures including growing, husbandry, stewarding; cultivation and food and drink cultures; farmer clusters and sustainability;
• Environment and climate including woodland management, wood working; trees; fishing and coastal cultures; Downs, chalk and chalkland; rivers, streams, weald, biosphere;
• Urban green; urban-rural-semi-rural relations and initiatives; built environment and architectural traditions and adaptations;
• Archives, documentation, oral history, eco-acoustics, curating, performing;
• Education; generations; deep time; memory, investment; university and school lands and policies including the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ campus;
• Tradition and change; revival, retelling, future roots.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals of 250 words along with a brief bio and (if relevant) website address or reference to bibliography, should be submitted by 15 January 2026, on the following website:

Presentations will be on average 20 minutes in length.

Registration fees apply but will be kept as low as possible.

Organisers:

Margaretta Jolly, m.jolly@sussex.ac.uk
Sam Carroll, s.j.carroll@sussex.ac.uk

This conference is brought to you by the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research, in partnership with the Sussex School for Progressive Futures, and with support from the MAH Research PS team. It marks the culmination of the Sussex Retold project, funded by the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account at the 5XÉçÇøÊÓƵ.

Important Dates

• Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2026
• Notification of acceptance and reviewer feedback: 15 February 2026
• Registrations open 18th March 2026
• Conference date: Friday 19 June 2026.

Further information: /research/centres/centre-for-life-history-and-life-writing-research/research/projects/sussex-retold