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
Projects
The American Folklore Society manages a number of projects and programs that serve our mission to strengthen, support, and increase understanding of the field of folklore.
Notable Folklorists of Color
An online exhibition profiling ancestors of color who have contributed to folklore scholarship through research and documentation by, about, and for the uplift of historically and persistently marginalized communities.
Folk Arts Partnership Professional Development Institute
A partnership of the American Folklore Society, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Folk Arts Partnership Professional Development Institute supports folk and traditional arts program managers at state arts agencies, regional arts organizations, and their partners by providing professional development, networking, technical assistance, mentorship, and planning consultation.
National Folklore Archives Initiative
This AFS-coordinated effort documents and provides access to information about folklore archival collections held by folklore programs at a variety of institutions and organizations in the United States.
Veterans Oral History Workshops
AFS partners with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Oral History Association in the Veterans History Project to provide experienced folklorists and oral historians to lead community-based workshops to teach the interviewing skills needed to document the stories of US war veterans.
Open Folklore
Open Folklore (OF) is an ongoing project of the American Folklore Society to learn about, better understand, and encourage open access practices in folklore studies. Since the project’s founding in 2011, many individuals and organizations in folklore studies have together built an enviable scholarly communication system through which a wide range of scholarly and public-facing materials are now widely available. OF is continuing to encourage and publicize this work.
Consultancy and Professional Development Program
Provides contracts for consultancies and professional development opportunities that create case studies in the folk and traditional arts field, or reports on a variety of best practices in work related to folk and traditional arts professions.
China-US Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage Project
Since 2007, this project has united scholars from the folklore studies communities in China and the United States to share knowledge about work in the folk and traditional arts and the relationship between intangible cultural heritage practices and policies and the work of folklore studies.
AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus
The AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus is a searchable online vocabulary that can be used to improve access to information about folklore, ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, and related fields.
