The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (LOC) invites proposals to a symposium titled, “From Lived Experience to Public Memory: Commemorating, Documenting, and Archiving Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” on March 12 and 13, 2026. The deadline for submissions is June 16, 2025, at 11:59 PM ET.
Events
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.
Folklore Fellows is currently holding a clearance book sale of their publication, Folklore Fellows' Communications—a refereed monograph series with 327 titles. Sale ends April 30, 2025.
Dr. Laura E. Ruberto and Dr. Joseph Sciorra have curated the exhibition Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, which presents the creative work and material culture made by Italian soldiers who were imprisoned by the Allied forces during World War II. The exhibit will open on May 1, 2025 and remain on view until September 26, 2025 at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in Manhattan.
The American Folklife Center will host “Documenting Ourselves: Impacts, Outcomes, and Insights from the Community Collections Grant Program”—a symposium on April 10th and 11th at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. AFS Members are invited to attend.
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.
Join Future Pathways, Mid-America Arts Alliance’s virtual workshop series focused on delivering essential skills to nonprofit managers and arts leaders. In this interactive workshop, Alice Berry, artist and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), will discuss methods of managing organizational sustainability and burnout. This session is held from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Central Time on April 10, 2025, on Zoom.
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.
On Wednesday, March 19, join Arts Midwest and attorneys from McDermott Will & Emery LLP for a webinar to help your organization understand and navigate the potential impact of executive orders.
"Claiming Folklore – Politics and Practices of Folk Music on Swiss Television (1960s-1990s)" is a Swiss National Science Foundation-funded project based at the University of Zurich (UZH). The final conference of this project, titled "Media, Modernity, and the Transformation of Tradition(s) – The Role of Audiovisual Media from an International Perspective," will be held on September 8 and 9, 2025. The deadline for submitting a proposal is March 31, 2025.