AFS Folk Belief Section Taking Submissions for William A. Wilson Prize 2022

The Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section of the American Folklore Society invites submissions for the William A. Wilson Prize for the Best Undergraduate Student Paper in Folk Belief or Religious Folklife, with an honorarium of $250.  The prize was named for folklorist, editor, and archivist William Albert “Bert” Wilson (1933-2016), scholar of the Finnish Kalevala and of Mormon folklore.

Submissions: All research papers, in English, by undergraduate students written after January 1 of the previous year (e.g., January 1, 2021 for the 2022 Prize), published or unpublished at the time of submission, and written on a folk belief or religious folklife topic, broadly construed, are eligible.

Interested applicants must submit the following materials for consideration:

(1) A cover letter specifying the date when the paper was written; the conference, colloquium, or course where the paper has been or will be submitted; or the publication in which it will be published. (2) The paper should be a minimum of 8 pages, and a maximum of 36 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font, with one-inch margins. PLEASE NOTE: To ensure blind judgment of papers, please remove the author’s name and identifying metadata from the paper. Entries must be fully footnoted for a reading audience, using Journal of American Folklore citation style. (3) A short (100-word) biographical statement about the author, including the author’s current student status, with description of the research. Prize winners may also be asked later to send a photo for publicity. (4) An email letter from a faculty sponsor endorsing submission of the paper, sent to the prize committee chair, Margaret Kruesi, [email protected].

Deadline: The deadline for submissions is midnight August 15. Any materials received after this deadline will not be considered. Electronic submissions are required.

The (1) cover letter; the (2) paper with its title; and the (3) biographical statement about the author should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents or pdf to the AFS prize application submission form linked here. For any technical questions related to the submission, please send an email to AFS Executive Director Jessica Turner at [email protected]

One submission per person, please. Previous winners of the William A. Wilson Undergraduate Student Paper Prize are not eligible. The papers will be evaluated by three judges who are members of both the American Folklore Society and the Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section. The winner will be announced at the Section’s business meeting at the Society’s annual meeting and the winner will be featured in the AFS newsletter.