American Folklore Society

Last updated

American Folklore Society
AbbreviationAFS
Formation1888
Type Professional association
Headquarters Bloomington, Indiana
Location
  • United States
President
 Marilyn White
Key people
Jessica A. Turner
(Executive Director)
Website www.americanfolkloresociety.org

The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the United States (US)-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible application of that research, publish various forms of publications, advocate for the continued study and teaching of folklore, etc. [1] The Society is based at Indiana University and has an annual meeting every October. [2] The Society's quarterly publication is the Journal of American Folklore . The current president is Marilyn White. [3]

Contents

As of 2016, almost half of its 2,200 members practice their work outside higher education. In addition to professors, members include public folklorists, arts administrators, freelance researchers, librarians, museum curators, and others involved in the study and promotion of folklore and traditional culture. [4]

History

AFS was founded in 1888 by William Wells Newell, [5] who stood at the center of a diverse group of university-based scholars, museum anthropologists, and men and women of letters and affairs. In 1945, the society became a member of the American Council of Learned Societies. [6] AFS is also an active member of the National Humanities Alliance (NHS). [7]

Over the years, prominent members of the American Folklore Society known outside academic circles have included Marius Barbeau, Franz Boas, Ben Botkin, Jan Harold Brunvand, Linda Dégh, Ella Deloria, William Ferris, John Miles Foley, Joel Chandler Harris, Zora Neale Hurston, James P. Leary, Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax, Kay Turner, and Mark Twain. Past presidents have included Samuel Preston Bayard, Henry Glassie, Diane Goldstein, Dorothy Noyes, and Dell Hymes.

Past Presidents

Awards

AFS awards various prizes to honor outstanding work in the field of folklore, at the opening ceremony of the annual AFS meeting. These include the following:

Other prizes are awarded annually, by different sections of the American Folklore Society.

Every other year (in alternating years), AFS awards the following prizes:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lomax</span> American musicologist and folklorist (1867–1948)

John Avery Lomax was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess Lomax Hawes, also distinguished collectors of folk music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folklore studies</span> Branch of anthropology

Folklore studies is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the folklore artifacts themselves. It became established as a field across both Europe and North America, coordinating with Volkskunde (German), folkeminner (Norwegian), and folkminnen (Swedish), among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Harold Brunvand</span> American folklorist (born 1933)

Jan Harold Brunvand is an American retired folklorist, researcher, writer, public speaker, and professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah.

Benjamin Albert Botkin was an American folklorist and scholar.

Alfred Irving "Pete" Hallowell was an award-winning American anthropologist, archaeologist and businessman.

William Wells Newell (1839–1907) was an American folklorist, school teacher, minister and philosophy professor.

Henry Glassie College Professor Emeritus at Indiana University Bloomington, has done fieldwork on five continents and written books on the full range of folkloristic interest, from drama, song, and story to craft, art, and architecture. Three of his books -- Passing the Time in Ballymenone, The Spirit of Folk Art, and Turkish Traditional Art Today -- were named among the "Notable Books of the Year" by The New York Times. Glassie has won many awards for his work, including the Charles Homer Haskins Prize of the American Council of Learned Societies for a distinguished career of humanistic scholarship. A film on his work, directed by Pat Collins and titled Henry Glassie: Field Work, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

<i>Journal of American Folklore</i> Academic journal on American folklore

The Journal of American Folklore is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. The journal has been published since the society's founding in 1888. Since 2003, this has been published at the University of Illinois Press. It publishes on a quarterly schedule and incorporates scholarly articles, essays, and notes relating to its field. It also includes reviews of books, exhibitions and events.

Wayland Debs Hand was an American folklorist.

Elli-Kaija Köngäs-Maranda was an internationally renowned anthropologist and feminist folklorist. She studied Finnish language and folklore at the University of Helsinki, where she received her B.A. in 1954 and her M.A. in 1955. She continued her studies in the United States of America and did her doctoral dissertation in 1963 at Indiana University. She was a lecturer at Columbia University and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University. Köngäs-Maranda was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. The Society's Women's section inaugurated 1983 two prizes in her memory.

Richard Bauman is a folklorist and anthropologist, now retired from Indiana University Bloomington. He is Distinguished Professor emeritus of Folklore, of Anthropology, and of Communication and Culture. Before coming to IU in 1985, he was the Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas and a faculty member in the UT Department of Anthropology. Just before retiring from Indiana, he was chair of the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, as well as an important member of the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Communication and Culture.

Pravina Shukla is an American folklorist who is Provost Professor of Folklore at Indiana University Bloomington and serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology, Department of American Studies, the Dhar India Studies Program, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is also a consulting curator at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.

Roger David Abrahams was an American folklorist whose work focused on the expressive cultures and cultural histories of the Americas, with a specific emphasis on African American peoples and traditions.

Folklore Institute refers to the folklore studies program of Indiana University Bloomington (USA). The Folklore Institute, together with the Ethnomusicology Institute, constitute the larger Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. The Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology is a unit of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Linda Dégh was a folklorist and professor of Folklore & Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Turner</span>

Kay Turner is an artist and scholar working across disciplines including performance, writing, music, exhibition curation, and public and academic folklore. She is noted for her feminist writings and performances on subjects such as women’s home altars, fairy tale witches, and historical goddess figures. She co-founded “Girls in the Nose,” a lesbian feminist rock punk band that anticipated riot grrl.

The Wayland D. Hand Prize is an award given by the History and Folklore section of the American Folklore Society (AFS) for the best book combining historical and folkloristic methods and materials. The biennial prize honors the eminent folklorist Wayland D. Hand (1907-1986), a former president of the American Folklore Society (1955-1967) who in his teaching and scholarship encouraged historical methodology in folklore research.

Joan Newlon Radner is an American folklorist, storyteller and oral historian. She is Professor Emerita at American University in Washington, DC.

MacEdward Leach (1892-1967) was an American folklorist, whose work "greatly influenced the development of folklore as an academic discipline".

Amy Skillman is an American folklorist. She has served as the academic director of the M.A. in cultural sustainability at Goucher College since 2012. In 2023, she was elected president of the American Folklore Society (AFS). She became involved with the AFS in 1978 and served on its executive board from 2009 to 2011. She is an AFS fellow and a recipient of the Botkin Prize.

References

  1. ↑ "Bylaws". American Folklore Society. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  2. ↑ "AFS to Move to Indiana University - American Folklore Society". www.afsnet.org. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Executive Board - American Folklore Society". www.americanfolkloresociety.org. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  4. ↑ "American Folklore Society". scholarworks.iu.edu. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  5. ↑ Bell, Michael J (June–August 1973). "William Wells Newell and the Foundation of American Folklore Scholarship". Journal of the Folklore Institute . 10 (1/2): 7–21. doi:10.2307/3813877. JSTOR   3813877.
  6. ↑ "American Folklore Society". ACLS.org. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Members List". National Humanities Alliance. May 25, 2013. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Women's Section". American Folklore Society. Retrieved December 28, 2011. Each year, the Women's Section of the American Folklore Society awards two prizes in honor of pioneering scholar Elli Köngäs-Maranda.
  9. ↑ "W.W. Newell Prize". American Folklore Society. Retrieved December 28, 2011. The Children's Folklore Section annually offers the W. W. Newell Prize, which includes a cash award, for the best student essay on a topic in children's folklore.
  10. ↑ "Aesop Prize and Aesop Accolades". afsnet.org. American Folklore Society. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  11. ↑ "History and Folklore Section: Wayland D. Hand Prize". American Folklore Society.
  12. ↑ "AFS Prizes", Retrieved May 25, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.