Meeting in the Storm – 2024 Albuquerque and AFS

The American Folklore Society hosted a robust gathering for its 136th Annual Meeting November 6-9, 2024 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and virtually November 18-19. The 2024 Annual Meeting brought together nearly 900 US and international specialists in folklore and folklife, folk narrative, popular culture, music, material culture, and related fields to exchange work and ideas and to create and strengthen relationships and networks.

The AFS Local Organizing and Review Committees worked diligently throughout the year to support the theme of the conference: Crossing the Global Storm: Networks, Solidarities, and Communities in Struggle. The global storm reminds us about the intimate connections among people who struggle across the globe and hemisphere. Crossing the Global Storm brought together folklorists, culture bearers, culture workers, communities, and organizations working to build networks of autonomy, commitment, and collaboration. 

From forums and workshops, to papers, posters and excursions, the response to the Call for Proposals and positive feedback on our new proposal management system was impressive. With over 500 individuals submitting their ideas for the Albuquerque meeting, we saw an increase in most proposal categories by 10-25% from 2022 and 2023. 

For those attending in-person, the Meeting was not without its challenges, including a non-functioning Conference Center with heat, smells, and broken equipment. The 2024 participant survey results provide more details about the impacts of these shortfalls on our participants.

On its first day in Albuquerque, the meeting began with a pre-conference from the Association of Western State Folklorists, as well as excursions around the city.  While the meeting week started with snowy weather, our participants made their way together again for a heartfelt Opening Ceremony and Reception, featuring local artists Lone Piñon and a dance workshop from Lucy Salazar.

Thursday through Saturday were full of sessions that reached across the many fields of interest and focus for our members and participants.  The AFS board and committees included special sessions to support engagement and response to critical questions of the field.  This included a lively AFS Executive Board Candidates meet and greet, and “Bring your Ideas to the AFS Executive Board ” as well as special sessions such as “Folklore Fieldwork and the Safety of Ethnographers” and “Finding Resonance and Relevance” a workshop facilitated by the Cultural Diversity Committee.

Our Local Organizing Committee offered a variety of ways to discover the region and resources. Most notably, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico hosted a special series of Museums-focused programming on the topic of Community Engagement in the Museum. Scheduling the local events and excursions is a balancing act each year/in each location. Many of you enjoy these ways to experience local cultures, sights, and communities while engaging with colleagues. With the changing calendar and climate at each annual meeting, local organizers and AFS staff do their best to navigate weather and other scheduling changes and disruptions that come up. Participants’ interest in attending these continues, and along with local organizers, we hope to cultivate satisfying, engaging events both short and extended, to enable more of you to participate.  

In this same spirit of community engagement, the Presidential Invited Lecture for the 2024 Annual Meeting featured University of New Mexico (UNM) Professor of American Studies Dr. Jennifer Nez Denetdale (Diné) and NEA Heritage Fellow and UNM Professor Emerita Eva Enciñias in a conversation focused on their respective and collaborative cultural and educational work in New Mexico. The conversation was facilitated by AFS President Amy Skillman.

The Meeting also revamped familiar conference offerings and provided new ones, including a new Conference Platform, Poster Sessions, Bilingual Access, Section Guides and Print Programs

We appreciate and value participants’ feedback and willingness to embrace new formats and materials.  In that regard, the participation in the Virtual Sessions, held Nov 18-19, was also strong.  These sessions allowed more than a hundred scholars to present online, whether schedules or geography prevented them from attending in person. Recordings of these virtual sessions, along with some from the in-person meeting, are available to Registered Conference attendees via the online meeting platform.  The new digital poster session offered a wealth of intriguing ideas. In our 2025 iteration of the poster session, we are planning a more personally interactive format in person and considering ways to more effectively set up the virtual poster session to reflect the spirit of the in-person session.

The present moment challenges us all to expand and experiment, to find fresh solutions to perennial problems, and to creatively respond to the needs and constraints that are unique to this moment. We thank you for joining us to consider these goals and opportunities and for collaborating with us as we put these ideas in motion. 

Thank you to the Sponsors of the Meeting, the Local Organizing Committee, the Review committee, Section Conveners, artists, exhibitors, and volunteers and all the many members who work together through a variety of challenges to make the meeting a success each year!

Photos by Alan Burdette, Josh Weilepp, and Ian Turner.