This award is bestowed every year (and before 2012, every other year) on a living senior scholar in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievement over the course of a career. The awardee is honored at the American Folklore Society annual meeting, and is given a certificate and a $500 honorarium.
How to Apply
The annual deadline for nominations for this award is April 15. To nominate a candidate for the award, please submit your nomination via the AFS prize application form.
The entire nomination package, including the cover letter, should be no longer than 25 pages. Supporting materials can include a summary of scholarly positions; publications and other scholarly productions; professional and university service; degrees; awards, grants, and honors. The package may also include reviews of prominent works, letters and articles by major scholars attesting to the candidate’s contributions and achievements, and texts of awards and honors.
Nominees not selected in the year of their original nomination are kept in consideration for two more reviews.
Past Award Recipients
W.F.H. Nicolaisen, University of Aberdeen, emeritus (2002)
Linda Dégh,Indiana University, emerita (2004)
Don Yoder, University of Pennsylvania, emeritus (2006)
Richard Bauman, Indiana University, emeritus (2008)
Henry Glassie, Indiana University, emeritus, and Michael Owen Jones, UCLA, emeritus (2010)
Wolfgang Mieder, University of Vermont (2012)
Lee Haring, Brooklyn College, emeritus (2013)
Dan Ben-Amos, University of Pennsylvania (2014)
Elaine Lawless, University of Missouri, and Elliott Oring, California State University, Los Angeles, emeritus (2015)
Barre Toelken, Utah State University, emeritus (2016)
Norma E. Cantú, Trinity University (2017)
Simon J. Bronner, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, and Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, emeritus (2018)
Amy Shuman, The Ohio State University (2019)
Jeff Todd Titon, Brown University Emeritus (2020)
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York University (2021)
Charlotte Heth, UCLA, emerita (2022)
Bill Ellis, Pennsylvania State University, emeritus (2023)