Ian Brodie (he/him) is the Professor of Folklore at Cape Breton University, a graduate of Memorial’s Folklore program, and a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. He has twice served as President of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada / l’Association canadien d’ethnologie et de folklore and is currently President of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research. He writes about stand-up comedy, local popular culture, and folklore and children’s television, along with the interconnectedness of legend and joke. He knows in person he is older looking than the picture you are currently looking at.
Statement of Candidacy:
The next five years will be turbulent for folklore: the assaults on universities by state legislatures work to undermine a discipline that rightfully refuses to step backwards towards a descriptive science of a romanticized bowdlerized past. Hope, the thing with feathers, demands we not only weather this storm but plan for an eventual realignment, not just by rebuilding the recent present but by reimagining our future. Advocacy for the thing we study—vernacular creativity—and the people who create it must be met with advocacy for the current and future generations of students. The Nominating Committee will seek out representative candidates with as much an eye on the medium and longterm as to our immediate moment, across the spectrum of folklorists.
