IFUSCO (International Finno-Ugric Students' Conference) is an annual international conference for and by the students of Finno-Ugric languages and peoples.[1]
IFUSCO conference contains presentations and workshops on linguistics, ethnography, folkloristics, archaeology, history, museology, literature, translation theory, sociology, law, music, mythology, regional issues, education, economics etc., that are connected to the lives of speakers of Finno-Ugric languages.[2] [3] [4] In addition, IFUSCO offers different events related to the Finno-Ugric cultures and the host country.
IFUSCO has always been a multilingual conference, featuring the Uralic languages as well as English, Russian and German. One of IFUSCO's long-standing traditions is the three-language rule, according to which every presentation must consist of three languages – one for the abstract of the presentation, one for its handouts or slides, and one for the speech itself.[5]
Every hosting students’ committee is also presenting a unique emblem of the year's event that serves as a logo for the whole conference.
IFUSCO was created in 1984 in Göttingen by local students of Finno-Ugric studies, to facilitate contact between other students. The conference was initially a small gathering that mainly served as a forum and as a way of exchanging information. The first IFUSCO had 26 participants from the Netherlands (Groningen) and Germany (Göttingen, Hamburg). Later it has turned into a conference format where lectures are given by and for students.
IFUSCO is organized in a different city and by a different university every year. Since the first conference there have been 39 IFUSCOs held in 23 different cities and 10 different countries. Russian universities have organised the largest number of conferences, eight in total, the first of which was held in 1999 in Syktyvkar and the latest in 2013 in the same city. Among individual cities, Helsinki and Budapest have hosted the most conferences, four each.
The conference has been cancelled twice in its history. First cancellation happened in 2001, when the conference was supposed to be held in Izhevsk, Russia.[6] In 2020 the conference was meant to be held by Riga, Latvia, but got postponed until the following year due to COVID-19. IFUSCO in 2021 was held fully online.[7] [8] The conferences after that have offered a chance for partial online participation.[9] [10]
In 2016 IFUSCO was originally supposed to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk on 7–9 April. It was postponed twice before finally being cancelled.[11] However, the Finnish students of Finno-Ugric studies organized its small version at the University of Helsinki in order to keep the tradition.
| 1984 | Göttingen | 25–27 May | |
| 1985 | Hamburg[12] | ||
| 1986 | Groningen[13] | ||
| 1987 | Budapest[14] | 24–28 May | |
| 1988 | Helsinki[15] | 22–26 May | |
| 1989 | Vienna[16] | 14–18 May | |
| 1990 | Tartu[17] | ||
| 1991 | Greifswald[18] | 19–23 May | |
| 1992 | Munich | ||
| 1993 | Prague | ||
| 1994 | Poznań | ||
| 1995 | Szeged | ||
| 1996 | Hamburg[19] | 24–28 April | |
| 1997 | Turku[20] | 20–24 May | |
| 1998 | Pécs | 20–25 May | |
| 1999 | Syktyvkar | 10–14 May | |
| 2000 | Tallinn | 3–7 August | |
| 2001 | Cancelled | ||
| 2002 | Helsinki | 11–15 September | |
| 2003 | Syktyvkar | 24–26 September | |
| 2004 | Budapest | 3–8 May | |
| 2005 | Izhevsk | 12–15 May | |
| 2006 | Yoshkar-Ola | 12–15 May | |
| 2007 | Saransk | 15–19 May | |
| 2008 | Helsinki | 14–18 May | |
| 2009 | Petrozavodsk | 14–16 May | |
| 2010 | Kudymkar | 14–16 May | |
| 2011 | Budapest | 9–11 May | |
| 2012 | Tartu | 8–11 May | |
| 2013 | Syktyvkar | 6–8 May | |
| 2014 | Göttingen[21] | 9–11 April | |
| 2015 | Pécs | 16–19 April | |
| 2016 | Helsinki | 15–18 September | |
| 2017 | Warsaw | 18–22 September | |
| 2018 | Tartu[22] | 2–5 May | |
| 2019 | Vienna | 23–27 April | |
| 2020 | Cancelled | ||
| 2021 | Riga | 11–12 May | |
| 2022 | Prague | 23–27 May | |
| 2023 | Turku | 15–19 May | |
| 2024 | Budapest | 27–31 May | |
| 2025 | Vienna | TBD | |