Susan Eleuterio is a professional folklorist, educator, and consultant to non-profits. Holding an MA in American Folk Culture/Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY/Oneonta) and a BA in English/Education from the University of Delaware, Eleuterio serves as an adjunct faculty member of Goucher College’s Master’s in Cultural Sustainability program. She teaches courses in Academic Writing, Organizing Communities: Advocacy, Activism and Social Justice and Fundraising. She has conducted fieldwork and developed public programs including exhibits, performances, folk arts education workshops and residencies in schools, along with professional development programs for teachers, students, adults, and artists for schools, museums, arts education agencies and arts organizations across the United States.
She is the former Board Chair for Illinois Humanities as well as former Co-Chair of the Chicago based Crossroads Fund Board of Directors. She currently serves as a board member of Lakeshore Public Media in Indiana. Eleuterio is the author of Irish American Material Culture: A Directory of Collections, Sites and Festivals in the United States and Canada, as well as essays in the Encyclopedia of Chicago History, the Encyclopedia of American Folklore, the Encyclopedia of Women’s Folklore and Folklife, Ethnic American Food Today: A Cultural Encyclopedia, “Statewide Models for Folk Arts in Education” in the Missouri Folklore Society Journal, and a collaboratively written chapter: “Even Presidents Need Comfort Food; Tradition, Food and Politics at the Valois Cafeteria” in Comfort Food, Meanings and Memories (2017 University Press of Mississippi ). Her chapter, “Pussy Hats: Common Ground At the Chicago Women’s March was published in 2020 in Pussy Hats, Politics and Public Protest ( University Press of Mississippi). Her review of the traveling exhibit, Escaramuza, The Poetics of Home, will be published in the Journal of American Folklore in Spring, 2026 and her review of Whispers in the Echo Chamber: Folklore and the Role of Conspiracy Theory in Contemporary Society, Jesse A. Fivecoate and Andrea Kitta, eds. is available in the current issue of Folklore and Education.
Recent work includes serving as a consultant in exhibit development, public programming, and K-12 curriculum for the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University’s Placemaking in Scioto County project. In 2024, she co-created a strategic plan with Sherry Williams, ED of Bronzeville Historical Society for the Lyles Station Historic Corporation in Indiana. She also serves as the Board Treasurer for Southern Ohio Folklife, and as Board Treasurer for KINDFOLK, a non-profit serving Indiana and Kentucky. Projects for Southern Ohio Folklife include providing professional development for teachers in integrating student culture into the classroom. She is co-chair of the American Folklore Society’s Media and Public Outreach Committee and co-convenor of the American Folklore Society’s Women’s Section and a co-author of the AFS Advocacy toolkit.
Statement of Candidacy:
At this time of change, including a loss of funding for many members and constituents, I encourage the Executive board and staff to maintain and expand its focus on partnerships, collaborations, and advocacy. It is urgent for AFS to provide professional development, support, and research to non-profit culture workers, independent folklorists, academic faculty (full time and adjunct), students, and the communities we serve, while expanding our reach to adjacent fields. Research should include alternative sources of funding such as private philanthropy along with innovations in AFS’s sharing of its members’ work such as digital and social media platforms like Folkwise.
