American Folklore Society
Encyclopedia
The American Folklore Society is the US
-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada
, and around the world. It was founded in 1888 by William Wells Newell
, who stood at the center of a diverse group of university-based scholars, museum anthropologists, and men and women of letters and affairs. At present, almost half of its 2,200 members practice their work outside of higher education. In addition to professors, members include museum
curator
s, librarians, arts administrators, freelance researchers, and others involved in the study and promotion of folklore
and traditional culture. The Society is based at the Ohio State University
and has an annual convention every October. The Society's quarterly publication is the Journal of American Folklore
. The American Folklore Society is a member organization in the American Council of Learned Societies
.
Over the years, prominent members of the American Folklore Society known outside of academic circles have included Mark Twain
, Joel Chandler Harris
, Zora Neale Hurston
, Franz Boas
, Ella Deloria, Ben Botkin, Alan Lomax
, John A. Lomax, Jan Harold Brunvand
, William Ferris
, John Miles Foley
and Marius Barbeau
. The current president is C. Kurt Dewhurst, Director of Arts and Cultural Initiatives, and Senior Fellow for University Outreach & Engagement, and Professor of English at Michigan State University
. Past presidents include Samuel Preston Bayard
, Dell Hymes
, and Henry Glassie
.
The Society's Women's section inaugurated 1983 two prizes in the memory of anthropologist Elli Köngäs-Maranda
. Other awards given by the Society are named after Aesop
, Ben Botkin, Américo Paredes
, Archie Green
, Zora Neale Hurston, and William Still
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and around the world. It was founded in 1888 by William Wells Newell
William Wells Newell
William Wells Newell was an American folklorist, school teacher, minister and philosophy professor.Newell was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After trying his hand at ministry, he was a faculty member at the new philosophy department at Harvard University for a few years. However, the bulk of...
, who stood at the center of a diverse group of university-based scholars, museum anthropologists, and men and women of letters and affairs. At present, almost half of its 2,200 members practice their work outside of higher education. In addition to professors, members include museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
s, librarians, arts administrators, freelance researchers, and others involved in the study and promotion of folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and traditional culture. The Society is based at the Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
and has an annual convention every October. The Society's quarterly publication is the Journal of American Folklore
Journal of American Folklore
The Journal of American Folklore is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. Since 2003 this has been done on its behalf by the University of Illinois Press. The journal has been published since the society's founding in 1888. It publishes on a quarterly schedule...
. The American Folklore Society is a member organization in the American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
.
Over the years, prominent members of the American Folklore Society known outside of academic circles have included Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years...
, Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
, Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
, Ella Deloria, Ben Botkin, Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
, John A. Lomax, Jan Harold Brunvand
Jan Harold Brunvand
Jan Harold Brunvand is an American folklorist. A professor emeritus of the University of Utah, he best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, a form of modern folklore...
, William Ferris
William R. Ferris
William Reynolds Ferris is an American author and scholar and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities...
, John Miles Foley
John Miles Foley
John Miles Foley Is a scholar of comparative oral tradition, medieval and Old English Literature , Ancient Greek and Serbian epic. He is the founder of the academic journal Oral Tradition and the at the University of Missouri, where he is Curators' Professor of Classical Studies and English and...
and Marius Barbeau
Marius Barbeau
Charles Marius Barbeau, , also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology...
. The current president is C. Kurt Dewhurst, Director of Arts and Cultural Initiatives, and Senior Fellow for University Outreach & Engagement, and Professor of English at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
. Past presidents include Samuel Preston Bayard
Samuel Preston Bayard
Samuel Preston Bayard was an internationally known folklorist and musicologist. He received a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University in 1934 and later earned an M.A...
, Dell Hymes
Dell Hymes
Dell Hathaway Hymes was a sociolinguist, anthropologist, and folklorist whose work dealt primarily with languages of the Pacific Northwest. He was one of the first to call the fourth subfield of anthropology "linguistic anthropology" instead of "anthropological linguistics"...
, and Henry Glassie
Henry Glassie
Henry H. Glassie III is a folklorist and emeritus College Professor of Folklore at Indiana University Bloomington. With specializations in folk art, folklife, vernacular architecture and material culture, Glassie has written nearly twenty books on folklore of the areas of Ireland, Turkey,...
.
The Society's Women's section inaugurated 1983 two prizes in the memory of anthropologist Elli Köngäs-Maranda
Elli Köngäs-Maranda
Elli-Kaija Köngäs-Maranda was an internationally renowned anthropologist and feminist folklorist. She studied Finnish folklore at the University of Helsinki, and did her doctoral dissertation in 1963 at Indiana University.Köngäs-Maranda was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society...
. Other awards given by the Society are named after Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
, Ben Botkin, Américo Paredes
Americo Paredes
Americo Paredes was a Mexican-American author born in Brownsville, Texas who authored several texts focusing on the border life that existed between the United States and Mexico, particularly around the Rio Grande region of South Texas. His family on his father’s side, however, had been in the...
, Archie Green
Archie Green
Archie Green was a folklorist specializing in laborlore and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commented upon the speech, stories, songs, emblems, rituals, art, artifacts, memorials, and landmarks which constitute laborlore...
, Zora Neale Hurston, and William Still
William Still
William Still was an African-American abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, writer, historian and civil rights activist....
.