Storytelling artist, folklorist, and AFS Executive Board member Kiran Singh Sirah is pleased to share his storytelling toolkit, Telling Stories That Matter, which is designed to offer creative methods to explore compassionate storytelling.
AFS News
News about the American Folklore Society
Each month, the African American Folklorist honors individuals dedicated to preserving and advancing Black folklore, oral traditions, and Blues culture. This March, they recognize Dr. Anika Wilson for her groundbreaking work on informal narratives—gossip, rumor, and storytelling as cultural expression.
In response to the many profound challenges of the current historical moment, the Editorial Collective of the Journal of American Folklore invites written contributions to a special “Perspectives” section on the theme of “Crisis and Action.”
JAF thanks the new Editorial Board and new review editors who have agreed to serve for the next five years.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Francis James Child, ballad scholar and first president of the AFS. To commemorate this occasion and to explore the present-day state of scholarly studies in folksong and ballad, the History and Folklore section and the Music and Song section of the AFS in conjunction with the Traditional Song Forum and the Kommission für Volksdichtung are proposing to sponsor a series of panels at this year’s AFS annual meeting. The deadline for submitting a proposal is March 10, 2025.
The American Folklore Society invites you to submit a proposal for its 137th Annual Meeting October 18–21, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia with the Virtual Meeting sessions taking place November 12–14, 2025. The proposal window is February 12 through April 1, 2025.
The AFS Folklore and Science Section will host a virtual presentation to feature Dr. Anna Beresin for her prize-winning study "Techno-mischief: Negotiating exaggeration online in quarantine" via Zoom on Wednesday, February 12, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. ET.
The theme for the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society is Restoring and ReStorying: Missing Stories and Moving Forward. The Local Organizing Committee is excited to offer this framework for the conference, but adhering to the theme is optional and will not affect acceptance.
The American Folklore Society will sponsor a session in the 2026 MLA Convention themed Family Resemblances. AFS@MLA invites proposals on this theme that may help illuminate the field of folklore for the non-folklorists who constitute the bulk of the MLA’s membership. Deadline for submitting a proposal is March 15, 2025.
The 2024 Annual Meeting brought together nearly 900 US and international specialists in folklore and folklife, folk narrative, popular culture, music, material culture, and related fields to exchange work and ideas and to create and strengthen relationships and networks.