Folklore, Oral Tradition and Culture Studies |

Folk Art Factory: Andy Warhol and Vernacular Culture

Todd Richardson, PhD candidate in folklore, will deliver a talk at the Museum of Art and Afcheology's Museum Lecture series on Andy Warhol and his relationship with folklore. The Museum of Art and Archaeology is currently presenting the exhibition, "The Faces of Andy Warhol" in three installations between June 2009 and June 2010. More...

Troubling Violence: A Performance Project

Congratulations to Dr. Elaine Lawless and Dr. Heather M. Carver on the release of their new book, Troubling Violence (University Press of Mississippi). Troubling Violence: A Performance Project follows the collaboration between performance studies professor M. Heather Carver and ethnographic folklorist Elaine J. Lawless. The book traces the creative development of a performance troupe in which women take the stage to narrate true, harrowing experiences of domestic violence and then invite audience members to discuss the tales. Similar to the performances, the book presents real-life narratives as a means of heightening social awareness and dialogue about intimate partner violence. More...

Welcome New Folklore Students

We are very pleased to welcome Jackson Medel (MA/PhD) and Jenni Spitulnik (PhD) to the Folklore, Oral Tradition and Culture Studies program!

 

The deadline to apply to the Folklore, Oral Tradition and Culture Studies program for academic year 2010/2011 is January 1, December 15 for priority consideration. Thinking about applying to Mizzou's Folklore, Oral Tradition and Culture Studies program? Get in touch with faculty and students to find out if this is a good fit for you! More...

SFS Bake Sale!

Monday, October 12, 2009. The Student Folklore Society will hold its annual fall bake sale fundraiser on Columbus Day (earlier than our usual All Saints Day bakesale due to the need to raise enough funds for our upcoming trip to AFS in Boise) and will again be offering pre-orders for big ticket items like cakes, pies, loaves of bread, and large orders of cookies and bars. For those unfamiliar with the event, this is NOT your typical bake sale. All items are carefully homemade and our selection will be even MORE outstanding this year! Be ready for Columbus Day surprises (you can't taste genocide!).

 

All funds raised go to offset travel costs for conference attendence and to bring the Student Folklore Society's annual invited spring speaker. We appreciate your business!

AFS 2009: Boise, Idaho

The American Folklore Society Annual Meeting and Conference is October 21-25 in Boise Idaho. Our own Dr. Elaine Lawless will be giving her much-anticipated presidential address, "Folklore as a Map of the World: Rejecting 'Home' as a Failure of the Imagination" on Saturday, October 24 from 5:30-6:30. Lawless is wrapping up her two-year stint as president of the American Folklore Society; she will be succeeded by C. Kurt Dewhurst, of Michigan State University.

Check out this new article about Columbia and Mizzou urban legends: http://www.voxmagazine.com/stories/2009/08/19/local-tales/

Note that they include Mizzou Folklore's own LuAnne Roth!

 

Congratulations to Dr. Anand Prahlad on his Faculty Award from the Mizzou Alumni Association. Prahlad will be honored at a ceremony in October.

Congratulations also to Willow Mullins (PhD candidate in Folklore), whose first book, "Felt" is due out in November from Berg Publishers. Mullins' book is part of Berg's "Textiles that Changed the World" series. Congratulations also on Mullins' nomination by the English Department for the Graduate Student Association's Superior Graduate Achievement Award! A final congratulations to Willow and her husband on the birth of their new baby boy!

Colloquium Lecture: Patrick B. Mullen, Ohio State 'Let's All Get Dixie Fried': Race and Masculinity
in American Vernacular Music, 1947-1957.

The late 40s and early 50s were a significant period in the development of country, bluegrass, blues, and rhythm & blues into rockabilly and rock n roll. The ongoing interchange between European American and African American music, especially the emulation of black masculinity by white singers and musicians, played a key role in the invention of rock n roll. By focusing on several influential performers, including Red Foley, Hank Williams, "Stick" McGhee, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, and closely examining certain of their recordings, we can better understand racial dynamics during that era. Vernacular music influenced and reflected the much wider social/cultural context of race relations in the United States in the 40s
and 50s.

 

Patrick B. Mullen is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio State University where he taught 20th Century American Literature and Folklore for 37 years. He is the author of The Man Who Adores the Negro: Race and American Folklore (2008), Listening to Old Voices: Folklore, Life Stories, and the Elderly (1992), I Heard the Old Fishermen Say: Folklore of the Texas Gulf Coast (1978); co-author of Lake Erie Fishermen: Work, Identity, and Tradition
(1990); and co-editor of Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore (1996). He has also published articles on folk belief, legend, folk narrative, and the relationship of folklore and American literature.

 

Congratulations to Dr. Chip Callahan, Religious Studies and Associated Folklore faculty, on the publication of his new book, Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields: Subject to Dust, 2009, Indiana UP.

MYTH AND FAIRY TALE CFP: Abstract/Proposals by 15 December 2009

Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Associations 30th Annual Conference
Albuquerque, NM February 10-13 2010

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
330 Tijeras
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: 1.505.842.1234
Fax: 1.505.766.6710

Panels now forming on topics related to all areas of myth and fairy tale and their connections to popular culture.

Special Areas of Interest Include:
The Special and Enduring Significance of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” and “Snow White” in American Popular Culture--Where Fairy Tales and Myth Overlap,--Fairy Tale and Advertising-- Fairy Tale and Myth in the works of Francesca Lia Block-- Fairy Tales and Horror--Fairy Tale and/or Myth in Film-- Revisionist Myth and Fairy Tale--The Works of Angela Carter and Fairy Tale—The Works of Margaret Atwood and Fairy Tale and/or Myth--Fairy Tale in Contemporary Poetry--Myth in Contemporary Poetry--Fairy Tale and the Contemporary Novel--Myth and the Contemporary Novel--Fairy Tale in the music of Tori Amos—Disney-- Barbie and The Fairy Tale--Joseph Campbell--Vladimir Propp--Feminists and The Fairy Tale—Fairy Tale and/or Myth in the Popular Culture of Past Centuries—Children’s Literature and Myth—Children’s Literature and Fairy Tale—Myth and/or Fairy Tale in the Worlds of Television—Fairy Tale and/or Myth in Comic Books or Graphic Novels—Fairy Tale and/or Myth in Science Fiction

Scholars, teachers, professionals, and others interested in Myth And Fairy Tales are encouraged to participate. Graduate students are also particularly welcome.
If you wish to form your own Myth or Fairy Tale-focused panel, I would be glad to facilitate your needs (Panels focused on one particular tale are especially encouraged). Also, if your work does not focus on Myth or Fairy Tale but fits within the broad range of areas designated for the upcoming conference on American & Popular culture, I still encourage you to participate. Please pass along this call to friends and colleagues.

Send 100-200 word abstracts and proposals for panels by 15 December 2009:
Melissa Morphew
Professor of English
Box 2146
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX 77341-2146
Phone # 936-294-1944
eng_smm@shsu.edu

LuAnne Roth’s article, "Beyond Communitas: Cinematic Food Events and the Negotiation of Power, Belonging, and Exclusion," has been reprinted in the new book Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture (Sharon Sherman and Mikel Koven, eds), published by the Utah State University Press in 2007. Roth is currently a PhD student in Folklore at the University of Missouri.

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