The Folklore of Democracy (University Press of Mississippi) explores how cultural practices serve as both a foundation for democratic engagement and, at times, tools for division.
Recent Releases
In The Village Project (University of Wisconsin Press), Sarah Craycraft uses ethnographic and folkloristic methods to study the Bulgarian responses to Europeanization, carried out through neoliberal folklife projects as they collide with ongoing efforts to build a revitalized rural Bulgaria in the ruins of the past.
Narrative Knows No Boundaries (University Press of Mississippi) is a collection of essays that explores the expanding use and study of “narrative”.
The latest JAF includes essays on a Mexican conflict zone as a site for a festival and tourism, Korean tourists dressing in rented traditional dress, occupational folk humor in a prison library, and obituaries and reviews of recent work in the field.
Folklorist Joseph Sciorra has published an online article about Italian American folklore for the City University of New York's Italian American Studies Open Syllabus.
Southern Appalachia has a fly fishing culture that combines the contemplative nature of the sport with a focus on the region's ecology, folklore, and storytelling. Tight Lines and Tall Tales (The University of North Carolina Press) draws on archival research, personal experiences, and oral histories to uncover the hidden history of Southern Appalachian fly fishing.
The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman (University of Alabama Press) is a raw, firsthand account of feuds, fiddling, moonshining, and survival in a small Alabama town, told by its most colorful chronicler and shaped through careful historical insight.
Treasures on Earth (Reaktion Books) uncovers the deep folklore of Britain’s buried riches, fears, and desires.
Alexander Girard’s Imagined Worlds (Hirmer Publishers) examines a modern design luminary whose collection of global folk art and vernacular forms informed his expansive design practice.
Music and the Staged Veillée in Quebec (University of Illinois Press) reveals the music, dancing, call-and-response songs, and extramusical associations winding through century-long conversations about nation, culture, and identity in Quebec.