Register Now for “Gathering at the Intersections of Folklore and the Environment,” An AFS Webinar

Registration for this event has closed.

The Fellows of the American Folklore Society (AFS), the Diverse Environmentalisms Research Team, and the Climate Interest Group of the Folklore and Science Section will host a webinar titled “Gathering at the Intersections of Folklore and the Environment” 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (EDT), Thursday, September 26, 2024. 

The webinar is open to scholars in folklore and adjacent fields as well as practitioners, cultural leaders, artists, and activists throughout the world who are working at the intersections of expressive culture and the environment. AFS membership is not required, but participants must register by September 16. 

After registering, registrants will receive a Registration Confirmation email from Mary Hufford, with the subject: Gathering at the Intersections of Folklore and the Environment with additional information. 

The goals of the webinar are to bring people together to share ideas, to learn about what others are doing, and to recognize our common themes and issues. Participants will have opportunities to identify promising trends in projects and research on environmental topics using folkloristic and related perspectives and methods. We also anticipate the discussions will help us to identify directions for the future. And, most importantly, we hope the webinar will help us to strengthen connections and collaborations among a broad range of individuals and groups.

At the webinar, following introductory remarks, participants will break into smaller working groups based on themes we have identified for the webinar:

• Climate change and cultural/community resilience 
• Diverse ontologies, environmentalisms, and worldmaking 
• Ecological imaginaries and performing environmentalisms
• Ecojustice and the Rights of Nature
• Environmental colonialism, resistance, and collective action
• Emerging ecological communities, design, practices, and perspectives 
• Folklore of nature
• More-than-human/human relations 
• Narrative ecology
• Cultural/Ecological sustainability policy, theory, and action
• Traditional and local ecological landscapes, cosmologies, and knowledge  

Because the webinar emphasizes discussion among participants, there will be no formal presentations. Instead of presenting papers, participants will discuss their projects and collaborations. To facilitate discussion, we invite participants to create and submit in advance a “digital postcard,” a slide that introduces their work and/or encapsulates their interests. These postcards will be accessible to webinar participants and will be posted on the AFS website to encourage further collaboration. See sample postcards created by event hosts, Mary Hufford and Rory Turner.  

A link for answering a few questions and instructions for submitting a digital postcard will be included in the Registration Confirmation email after you register. Please submit by September 20. 

If you have questions or need help, please write to hufford.mary@gmail.com, with “AFS Webinar” in the subject line. We hope to see you in September!