The Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section of the AFS invites submissions for the annual Leonard Norman Primiano Book Prize on Vernacular Catholicism. Works submitted must be book-length monographs in English published in the 24 months prior to the annual submission deadline of May 1, 2025.
AFS News
News about the American Folklore Society
The American Folklore Society (AFS) is pleased to announce the election of Dr. Lisa Rathje by the AFS Executive Board to serve as a member of the Board from 2025–27. She brings extensive advocacy and leadership experience in both academic and public sector settings, and knowledge of K-12 education and diverse learning spaces in her work to support folklife education across the U.S. Please join us in welcoming Lisa Rathje to the AFS Executive Board!
The call for proposals for the 2025 Annual Meeting closes at midnight ET on April 1. We welcome you to visit with the Annual Meeting team one last time before the proposal deadline on March 27, 8:30-9:30am and 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET. Register to receive the Zoom link.
Now available, the latest JAF raises important ethical concerns in an article about “angry folklore” in wartime and a discussion forum on how to respond to the professional legacies of colleagues who have harmed others through sexual discrimination or harassment.
The Independent Folklorists section of the AFS is starting a book group. Their first meeting will be held at 9pm ET on April 8, 2025, and the first book they will be reading is Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used by Peter Block.
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.
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.