As the AFS Annual Meeting is only four months away, the AFS Executive Board and Annual Meeting team members got to spend some important in-person time in Atlanta, Georgia together. The Executive Board continued discussions for AFS’s long term plans while the team laid groundwork for the October meeting.
AFS News
News about the American Folklore Society
The AFS Executive Board has issued a statement in response to cuts at the NEA following recent cuts to NEH, IMLS and other agencies. We urge members to take action by writing or calling state representatives and members of Congress.
Join the AFS Fellows for a webinar on May 19 at 1:30 p.m. EDT that highlights the publication of Emerging Perspectives in the Study of Folklore and Performance (IU Press, 2025). Authors engage in discussions on how folklore and performance intersect in their chapters on dance ethnography, social movements, ritual and narrative, archival practices, and the performance of tradition. Charles Briggs, Soli Otero and Anthony Bak Buccitelli moderate the discussion as Kay Turner and Stephen Gencarella provide critical commentary on the volume.
The AFS Fellows invites nominations for new Fellows for the 2025 election. The nomination period is open from now until May 6, 2025.
The new team of Featured Project and Review Editors for JAF: A Global Quarterly cordially invites you to reach out to them about creating reviews of work in the field. They'd like to hear your ideas about review opportunities, or they can share titles or projects in need of reviewers.
For a short time, you can freely access "Where Were/Are Asian American Folklorists?” by Juwen Zhang in JAF (Spring 2023).
The History and Folklore Section of the AFS invites submissions for the Wayland D. Hand Prize given to an author of an outstanding book in English that combines historical and folkloristic content and perspectives. A work submitted for consideration would have been published between June 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025. The deadline for submission is July 1, 2025.
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.
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.