Ozgun Ozata Awarded W.W. Newell Prize

Congratulations to Ozgun Ozata, whose paper, “Is London Bridge Falling Down?” won the AFS Children’s Folklore Section’s 2023 W.W. Newell Prize, given annually to the best essay by a student or emerging scholar on a topic in children’s folklore. The W. W. Newell Prize is awarded for the best essay by students or emerging scholars on a topic in children’s folklore.

In her study of the children’s game, “London Bridge,” Ozata used examples housed in the Irish folklore archives to analyze children’s playground traditions as rites of passage, in which children symbolize their escape from the overlooking judgment of adult teachers and administrators. The prize committee commended Ozata’s paper for its focus on developmental aspects of an awareness of being the subject of an adult “superior’s” gaze and for doing so while retaining key aspects of the playful essence of children’s folklore—where play and critical responses to cultural and adult expectations often arise in tandem. Ozgun Ozata’s paper will appear in either a late-2024, or early-2025 issue of Children’s Folklore Review.