Apply Now for 2023 AFS Prizes With Deadlines from August – September

Prize application season continues! The AFS Newsletter will alert you to new calls for applications, but you can check anytime on our round up of all AFS prizes and news, including new calls for applications that are posted as they are released.

Deadline: August 1

Each year, the Women’s Section awards the Polly Stewart Student Travel Stipend to one or more students to attend the American Folklore Society meeting. The Section awards a First Place Prize of $1,000 and a Second Place Prize of $600 to facilitate participation in the annual meeting by emerging scholars who show promise of furthering the study of women’s folklore, gender issues in folklore, and/or feminist approaches to the study of folklore. The award supports travel costs (transportation, meeting registration, lodging and/or per diem expenses) for students or recent graduates who are members of the AFS Women’s Section and who plan to attend the annual meeting and present her/his work.

Each year, the Women’s Section of the American Folklore Society awards two prizes in honor of pioneering scholar Elli Köngäs-Maranda. The prizes recognize superior work on women’s traditional, vernacular, or local culture and/or feminist theory and folklore. The content of the nominations must focus on some aspect of women’s folklore. Prize recipients do not have to be members of the American Folklore Society. The Elli Köngäs-Maranda Student Prize carries an award of $250 for an undergraduate or graduate student paper (up to 30 pages in length), produced as part of a degree program, and the Elli Köngäs-Maranda Professional/Non-Student Prize carries an award of $500 for publications, films, videos, exhibitions or exhibition catalogues, or sound recordings published/produced between August 1, 2022, and August 1, 2023.

Deadline: August 15

The Zora Neale Hurston Prize of $250 is named for the pioneering folklorist, ethnographer, and creative writer who lived from 1891 to 1960, worked in and wrote extensively about African American communities throughout the southern U.S. The prize is given to a graduate or undergraduate student for the best work in any medium—including but not limited to published or unpublished papers, films, sound recordings, or exhibitions—on African American folklore.

Each year, the AFS Cultural Diversity Committee, Chicana/Chicano Section, and Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano, y Caribeño Section join with the AFS Executive Board to award the Américo Paredes Prize of $500, which recognizes excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with the people and communities one studies, or in teaching and encouraging scholars and practitioners to work in their own cultures or communities.

Deadline: September 7

In memory of folklorist Gerald L. Davis and in partnership with the AFS Cultural Diversity Committee (CDC), the American Folklore Society provides a limited number of Gerald L. Davis Grants, ranging from $500 to $2000, to foster the participation, inclusion, and affirmation of persons of color who are invested in community development. Applicants may apply to the Presence Pathway and/or the Project Pathway, choosing the one that best serves their community of practice. Both pathways will include mentorship to welcome and support awardees.

Deadline: September 15

The Barbro Klein Prize in Nordic and Baltic Folklore is awarded by the Nordic and Baltic Folklore Section to a student for an outstanding conference paper, article-length essay, or research-based media production on a folklore topic having to do with Northern Europe and/or the diasporas of its various peoples.

Each year, the Public Programs Section of the American Folklore Society joins with the AFS Executive Board to award the Benjamin A. Botkin Prize of $500 to an individual for significant lifetime achievement in public folklore.

The Folklore and Science Section of the American Folklore Society invites submissions for the 2023 Folklore and Science Prizes. Folklore and Science Prizes are awarded to presentation-length papers (approximately 10 pages of text), focusing on the boundaries, intersections, and interdisciplinary exchanges between folklore and science.

The AFS Public Programs and the Independent Folklorists sections offer an Annual Meeting Award of $750 to attend the AFS Annual Meeting. The award supports costs such as transportation, meeting registration, lodging and/or per diem expenses) for an independent folklorist who is working within the field of public programming to attend the annual meeting and to present their work.

Find out more about AFS and AFS Section awards and prizes.