Check out the Annual Meeting Hub!

Our updated program is now available on the custom-built AFS Annual Meeting Hub, full of lectures, events, sessions, and other exciting programming at the upcoming meeting.

We sent a message with login credentials to all current registrants on October 3. Let us know if you are registered and have not received this message.

We’re Gathering Virtually and In Person

This year, AFS is offering two days of dedicated virtual programming, October 11-12, in addition to a four-day, in-person gathering in Portland, Oregon, November 1-4.

AFS will also offer virtual access to some Portland-based programming in the form of streamed keynotes, a limited number of hybrid sessions, and more session recordings. Learn more in FAQ.

flowers at the Portland Farmers Market

Meeting Highlights

Learn about networking opportunities, view section guides, and check out topics explored throughout the Annual Meeting.

Learn more

Fresh produce at the Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University (PSU). The Saturday market at PSU is open year-round, with over a hundred vendors participating.

Meeting Theme

The theme of the conference is Roots, Rootlessness, and Uprooting, pointing to historic, natural, and social processes of connection, creation, and removal. It also invites us to consider how and why injustice manifests, how it can be confronted, and invites presentations that highlight the role of folklore and folklorists. We invite participants to reflect on notions of roots as they connect to geographies and migration or more broadly to cultural practice or even shifts in disciplines or institutions. How might folklorists contribute to larger conversations in productive ways? 

Learn more

Plan to Participate

Whether or not you plan to present, please plan to participate! Registration provides access to both the fully virtual (Oct. 11-12) and in-person (Nov. 1-4) portions of the annual meeting.

Virtual attendees can expect access to some Portland-based programming in the form of streamed keynotes, a limited number of hybrid sessions, and more session recordings, as well as the full virtual program October 11-12. Place-based attendees can also join the fully virtual components before gathering in Portland for the immersive, in-person conference experience.

The in-person portion of the conference will be held at the Hilton Portland Downtown, 921 SW Sixth Ave, Portland, Oregon.

More information for attendees coming soon

Portland skyline with a snow capped mountain in the background
Portland, Oregon – 3/27/2012: View of snow covered Mt Hood and buildings in downtown Portland, Oregon. Photo by Bob, Adobe Stock #368347453
 

Sponsors, Exhibitors, and Advertisers

Now, more than ever, we have many options for raising awareness of your work, services or products.

Learn more

View from above of many people gathered in a hotel lobby around posters and exhibit tables
Attendees mingle and interact with local artists demonstrating their work at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society in Baltimore. Photo by Meredith McGriff

Portland Local Committee

Emily Hartlerode
Thomas Grant Richardson
Riki Saltzman
Martha Bayless
Daniel Wojcik
Mark Miyake
Joe Hickerson
Molly McBride
Lillian DeVane
Violeta Martin
Sharon Sherman
Carol Silverman
Jared Schmidt
Mathilde Lind
Rick March
Debbie Fant
Makaela Kroin
Robert Glenn Howard

Proposal Review Committee

Robert Glenn Howard, chair
Carl Lindahl
Daniel Wojcik
Thomas Grant Richardson
Molly McBride
Violeta Martin
Debbie Fant
Mathilde Lind
Jared Schmidt
Brandon Barker

Questions about the annual meeting? Check our FAQs, or send a message to [email protected].