The American Folklore Society is excited to introduce a new, simplified timeline for section prizes and section travel awards, designed to make the process clearer, more consistent, and more accessible for all applicants.
Prizes
The AFS Cultural Diversity Committee has reopened the Project Pathway of the Gerald L. Davis Grants for additional applications. The new deadline is May 1, 2026.
The Nordic-Baltic Section of the American Folklore Society congratulates Joelle E. Jackson on winning the 2025 Barbro Klein Prize for her essay, “With My Own Roots: Estonian Tradition-Bearing and Identity in Ireland.”
The History and Folklore Section of the AFS invites submissions for the Wayland D. Hand Prize to recognize an outstanding book in English that combines historical and folkloristic content and perspectives. Submissions are due June 1, 2026.
Suyash Kumar Neupane is the winner of the 2025 Warren E. Roberts Prize for Best Student Project in Folk Art and Material Culture. Yael Schuller-Podbilewicz receives an Honorable Mention for this prize.
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 History and Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society (AFS) announces the finalists for the 2024 Wayland D. Hand Prize. The winners will be announced at the AFS annual meeting in Albuquerque, November 6–9, 2024, and communicated in TFH: Journal of History and Folklore.
Congratulations to Ozgun Ozata, whose paper, “Is London Bridge Falling Down?” won the AFS Children’s Folklore Section’s 2023 W.W. Newell Prize, given annually to the best essay by a student or emerging scholar on a topic in children’s folklore.
Elizabeth Pérez’s The Gut: A Black Atlantic Alimentary Tract received the the Leonard Norman Primiano Book Prize on Vernacular Catholicism.