Penn State News recently highlighted the research of folklorist and Penn State Harrisburg faculty member Jeffrey Tolbert. Tolbert studies vernacular belief as it intersects with digital media, concentrating on Slender Man as an especially apposite case. He notes, “Belief…[is] about how we
Folklorists in the News
Jon D. Lee, the author of An Epidemic of Rumors, puts Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theories in folkloric context in The Atlantic, with reference to Andrea Kitta’s work on the folklore of anti-vaccination movements and Timothy Tangherlini’s analysis of the narrative differences between conspiracy rumors
Computational folklorist Timothy Tangherlini’s research into conspiracy theories and online platforms was featured in a recent article in Ars Technica. Tangherlini and his coauthors analyzed around 18,000 Reddit and Voat posts surrounding the infamous “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory to visually map out the narrative
Hanging Tree Guitars by Freeman Vines, Zoe van Buren, and Timothy Duffy has been selected as one of the year’s best books by NPR’s editorial staff. Zoe van Buren is a member of AFS and the current Folklife Director at the North Carolina
Ms. Magazine releases a list of must-read books published by writers from historically marginalized groups each month. For December, the book Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico Portraits of Soldaderas, Saints, and Subversives by Kathy Sosa, Ellen Riojas Clark, and Jennifer Speed was selected
Folklorist, curator, and writer Jo Farb Hernández, who has researched and documented monumental art environments created by self-taught artists around the globe since 1973, has recently been recognized by three important regional papers in Spain for her work studying the country’s art
Folklorist Molly Bolick discusses the intersection of folklore and COVID-19 in New Hampshire as part of The Nation’s “Scenes From a Pandemic” series. She alludes to Diane Goldstein’s work on AIDS narratives in the Canadian Maritimes, writing, “[Goldstein] argues that the process of
Luisa Del Giudice shares her thoughts in SIEF’s “Ethnological Matterings” video series discussing oral history, migration, food justice and hospitality, and pleads to work for change by making ethnological knowledge relevant. To view the episode, visit the Ethnological Matterings website.
AFS Member, Christine Widmayer, was featured on Eat Your Heartland Out, a radio show broadcasted on the Heritage Radio Network. Widmayer expands on Chaldean Food Traditions in the episode “A Taste of the Middle East in the Midwest.” To access the full episode,
Schenectady’s Daily Gazette wisely turned to New York Folklore’s Ellen McHale for help understanding “folklore” when the music and media world lit up over the recent release of Taylor Swift’s new album of that name. See: Indiana Nash, “Taylor Swift’s new album puts ‘folklore’ in