The American Folklore Society is committed to providing a professional environment, at the AFS annual meeting and at other AFS-sponsored activities, that upholds values of inclusion, safety, and mutual respect. AFS expects participants at its annual meeting and at other AFS-sponsored activities to follow the same standards of ethical engagement there as they do elsewhere in their practice as folklorists, and in everyday life.
Our standards do not tolerate any discrimination or harassment on the basis of age, body size, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, physical appearance, political perspective, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. Our standards call for sensitivity to power dynamics, exhibited in part through respect for the ideas, work, personal autonomy, and contributions of individuals in more junior positions in the field. Our standards include a belief in the rights of free speech and open inquiry, as well as respect and tolerance for people with worldviews, opinions, and experiences different from our own.
We expect all participants not to engage in any form of harassment at the AFS annual meeting and at other AFS-sponsored activities. Attendees should hold themselves and each other to these expectations. Anyone requested to stop harassing or other inappropriate behavior is expected to comply immediately.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
- Personal remarks about individuals that reinforce damaging social structures of domination (e.g., related to age, body size, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, physical appearance, political perspective, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic)
- Inappropriate use of sexual images in public spaces
- Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following
- Unwanted photography or recording
- Sustained disruption of talks or other events
- Inappropriate physical contact
- Unwelcome sexual attention
- Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior
The Society seeks to provide meaningful support to members who have experienced harassment at AFS annual meetings and at other AFS-sponsored activities. If you are the target or witness of harassment or other inappropriate behavior, we encourage you to report the incident to AFS staff: you may write confidentially to Executive Director Jessica Turner (jturner@afsnet.org), or you may approach any AFS staff member at the meeting to report an incident; they can facilitate additional support and/or action.
These officially designated contacts can serve as intermediaries, sounding boards, confidantes, and informal advisers; they can also confer with you about possible next steps. Reporting an incident of harassment does not obligate the reporter to pursue any further action. Our goal above all is to support vulnerable members of the community and to strategize to end the harassment in question. As a voluntary professional organization, the AFS is limited in its ability to respond formally to charges of harassment, but it will follow its professional and ethical responsibility to respond to reports of harassment among its membership, to protect the privacy of all concerned within the limits of the law, and to report complaint statistics to its members.
AFS reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any AFS meeting or activity or to take other action it deems appropriate and reasonable under the circumstances.
If you have immediate concerns about safety, report them first to security at the conference venue (instructions specific to the venue will be provided in program materials), or to the police at 911.
We ask you not to report inappropriate behavior in social media, but to quickly and privately contact AFS through appropriate channels, including cell phone, email or in person at our events. For one thing, AFS staff may not see your social media posts. Additionally, social media posts could create a more volatile or dangerous situation for the individual(s) experiencing this harassing behavior.
THIS STATEMENT IS INFORMATIONAL ONLY AND IS NOT A CONTRACT AND DOES NOT CREATE ANY LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE PROTECTIONS OR OBLIGATIONS ON THE PART OF AFS. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO, NOR SHOULD IT BE USED TO SUPPORT A CAUSE OF ACTION, CREATE A PRESUMPTION OF A BREACH OF LEGAL DUTY, OR FORM A BASIS FOR CIVIL LIABILITY.