News
Humanities Institute and Center for Folklore Studies Partner to Celebrate Mothman Legend
This November marks the 60th anniversary of the first Mothman sightings in Ohio and West Virginia…
We have news about our team: Merrill Kaplan, the director for the Center for Folklore Studies, has been promoted to Professor of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies. Our CFS Affiliate, Dr. Mintzi…
Professor Mark Bender, (Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and affiliate of the Center for Folklore Studies), presented the Richard M. Dorson Memorial Lecture in the Department of…
On February 26th, the Indiana University (IU) College of Arts and Sciences presented Dr. Dorothy Noyes, director of OSU’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies, with its
On February 25, 2026, Professor Mark Bender (Department of East Asian Languages and Literature) gave a presentation at the International Seminar on Folk Narratives in Indian Literary and…
Center for Folklore Studies GRA Nick Booker, alongside fellow students Di Wang and Ted Nagasawa, interviewed Dr. Stephen Mitchell on Scandinavian folklore and memorial landscapes.
Listen to…
The folklore reading room (Hagerty 455A) is now open during specific hours for the autumn semester. These are the standard open hours through the end of the semester:
Mondays: 9 am – 5 pm
Congratulations to OSU folklore alumna Puja Batra-Wells on receiving a 2025 Distinguished Staff Award. Puja is currently the Associate Director of the the Global Arts + Humanities office.
Job Title
Post Doctoral Scholar - Center for Folklore Studies
DepartmentArts and Sciences | Center for Folklore Studies
Follow this link to applyThe deadline to apply is May 30.
At the April 22 end-of-year celebration, the Humanities Institute's center directors announced their award winners for the academic year. Undergraduate and graduate students were present to…
The Center for Folklore Studies has announced this year’s recipients of the Graduate Student Travel Grant, supporting folklore scholars as they present their research at major conferences around…
The Folklore Reading Room (Hagerty 455A) is now open during normal working hours.
These are the standard open hours through the end of spring semester:
Mondays: 10 am –…
"Our Shared Traditions: More than Human Experiences" conference on February 28th and March 1st, was an incredible success! Graduate students from the Folklore Student Association led the way in…
The Center for Folklore Studies is offering one-time, small travel grants for currently enrolled graduate students pursuing the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization to present at folklore…
The Folklore Student Association is hosting an art competition to design a mascot and design element for the annual Indiana University and Ohio State University Graduate Student Conference in…
Creation of Outreach Theatre: The Urban Forest
This undergraduate course will give students a chance to explore performance as a means of impacting our community. Details of the…
Shared Traditions: More than Human Experiences February 28- March 1, 2025 | The Ohio State University | Columbus, OH
The Indiana University/Ohio State University Graduate Student…
At the April 16 end-of-year celebration, the Humanities Insitute's center directors announced their award winners for the academic year. Undergraduate and graduate students were present to receive…
CFS Director and Archivist Dr. Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth gave an interview with Ohio State News to celebrate the upcoming eclipse on April 8th. In the article, Dr. Waugh-Quasebarth provides…
Rhiar Kanouse, the Graduate Research Associate for the Center for Folklore Studies, presented at the 2024 American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) conference in Montreal, Canada. Her…
Congratulations to CFS Director and Archivist Dr. Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth as Weatherford Awards honors his book Finding the Singing Spruce: Musical Instrument Makers and Appalachia’s Mountain…
Congratulations to CFS Director and Archivist Dr. Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth on his recent article, "Appalachian Collections at the Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies Archive." His…
The Center for Folklore Studies announces one-time, small travel grants for currently enrolled graduate students pursuing the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization to present at folklore…
CFS Director Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth spoke on the plenary panel of the College of Arts & Sciences Equity and Justice Symposium, which was sponsored by the office of Office of Diversity, Equity,…
The Center for Folklore Studies celebrates the publication of Claiming Space: Performing the Personal through Decorated Mortarboard, a work by Sheila Bock, a folklorist and OSU alumna…
The Center for Folklore Studies celebrates the publication of Finding the Singing Spruce: Musical Instrument Makers and Appalachia's Mountain Forests by Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, director…
Click the PDF below to download this month's newsletter. Find information on upcoming events, funding opportunities and more.
It's time to apply for our annual spring awards. The Patrick B. Mullen Graduate Prize is funded by the Patrick B. Mullen Endowment Fund, which was established in recognition of…
We're pleased to announce a new folklore course to be offered Spring 2023. "Folklore of the Americas: Appalachia" will be taught by Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth as an undergraduate course.
…
This past semester, professors Amy Shuman and Mary Hufford were awarded Discovery Field School Grant Awards, which allowed them to “take students to domestic…
On June 14th, 2022, Sarah Craycraft defended Reinventing the Village: Generations, Heritage and Revitalization in Contemporary Bulgaria, a dissertation that committee members described as…
The Center for Folklore Studies is delighted to announce the launch of the newest collection in its archive: OSU Student Digital Folklore Collection (SDFC). The aim of the SDFC is to gather,…
Nine students in CS 4193 Border Issues and Immigrant Rights Activism in Ohio completed their final projects, documenting their visits to immigrant communities, immigrant rights groups and points…
Call for Submissions
This is an annual $200 cash award for the year's best folklore paper by an OSU undergraduate. It honors beloved emeritus professor Daniel R. Barnes, who taught folklore and…
Since 2006, the OSU Folklore Student Association has sponsored The Dan Barnes Joke Award. This award is given to the person who submits the best response to a joke prompt.
This year's…
The Patrick B. Mullen Prize is awarded annually for the best graduate student paper or project submitted during the academic year. The prize is given in honor of the significant contributions made…
Friday's 13th Francis Lee Utley lecture featured Dr. James Revell Carr, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology and director of the John…
Solimar Otero, Professor of Folklore in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, Bloomington, was recently interviewed for the Latin@ Stories podcast. In this episode,…
Professor Solimar Otero's recent lecture, “Archives of Conjure: Spirits, Art, and Materiality" is now online. Find it here.
Dr. Otero also was interviewed for the Latin@…
Human Rights On the Ground in New York City
ENGLISH 5193 | 1-credit field school | May 23-28, 2022
Sponsored by the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
Human Rights…
Dr. Elena Foulis, Clincal Associate Professor of Spanish and Associate Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies will be one of the speakers at TedXOhioState on 26 February 2022. For more…
Dr. Elena Foulis is performing in the upcoming CATCO production of Luchadora!
Performances take place February 17-March 6, 2022 at the Van Fleet Theatre in Columbus. More information,…
The Center for Folklore Studies joins the international folklore community in congratulating Professor Dorothy Noyes for being awarded the 2021 Kenneth Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic…
As the semester winds down and the holiday season approaches, the open hours of the Center for Folklore Studies will be by appointment. Please email us at cfs@osu.edu if you would like to arrange…
Katherine Borland's essay, "Slow Activism and the Cultivation of Environmental Stewardship in Rural Spaces" was published in the November special issue of Ethnologia Fennica: Rethinking…
The Center for Folklore Studies is closed the week beginning October 18, 2021, for the American Folklore Society's annual conference.
"How does Marvel's Thor measure up to his Norse counterpart?"
If that question has been bugging you endlessly, ponder no more, because that's the title of a recent article published on…
The CFS is OPEN. We encourage students, faculty, friends, and the general public to drop in, say hello and use our space for study, meetings, archive access, and library consultation. Here are the…
Profe Elena Foulis has been appointed the Associate Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies.
Dr. Elena Foulis is a student-centered educator with over 15 years of…
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Rachel Hopkin will join the staff at the Center for Folklore Studies and the Humanities Institute as our GAH DT Post Doc for 2021-2022…
Congratulations to Center for Folklore Studies faculty, staff, students, and alumni who contributed to Dr. Tim Lloyd's (also an alum!) recent publication, What Folklorists Do:…
Jasmine Stork defended her excellent dissertation, "Asexuality in Avengers Fanfiction: A Mixed-Methods Folklore Study" on Friday, July 16. This innovative study uses a folklore…
If Eastern Kentucky wants control of how the region is portrayed to the world, what should that new narrative say about people, culture and economy? For ideas we turn to Ohio State University…
We wish to extend hearty congratulations to Jordan Lovejoy for a stellar defense of her dissertation: Beyond the Flood: Environmental Memory, Precarity, and Creativity in Imagining Appalachia…
Congratulations to Dr. Wenyuan Shao, who has just defended her dissertation, Unheard Voices and Alternative Pasts: Deciphering Chronicles of Southwest Yi and Its Layered Ranges of…
CFS Director Katey Borland gave the opening keynote address at the 15th SIEF (International Society for Ethnology and Folklore) Congress, “Breaking the Rules? Power, Participation, Transgression,”…
Congratulations to alumna, Dr. Sheila Bock (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), who received the Department in Honors Teaching Award from the Honors College.
[pdf] - Some links on this…
The University of Washington Press has recently announced that The Nuosu Book of Origins: A Creation Epic from Southwest China (2019) by Mark Bender, Aku Wuwu, and Jjivot Zopqu, has just…
Congratulations to Katherine Borland, who has just won the Council of Graduate Students' James M. Siddens Award for Distinguished Faculty Advising! The Siddens Award was created by CGS to…
Congratulations to the awardees of the 2021 Folklore Student Association Covid Relief Scholarship! The one-time $400 scholarship is designed to support students who consider the discipline of…
Dorothy Noyes was awarded the honorific title of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor. The Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professorship is an honorific title. This award…
Congratulations to Lydia Smith (Art), who was awarded a Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme Graduate Team Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year! This program brings…
On April 12-16, 2021 at The Ohio State University, two faculty members from the Department of Sociology (Victor Espinosa and Danielle Schoon) co-organized a virtual symposium, Bringing the Border…
Congratulations to Sarah Craycraft and her collaborators, Elena Stoycheva and Sonya Pencheva, who were awarded a Fulbright alumni grant to continue working on a collaborative…
Bobby Dahlberg-Sears will be performing dissertation fieldwork as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Comparative Culture at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan beginning in June…
Congratulations to Jacob Kopcienski (Music), who was awarded a Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme Graduate Team Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year! This program…
Congratulations to Sarah Craycraft (Comparative Studies) who was awarded a Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme Graduate Team Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year! This…
Jasmine Stork has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Poland for 2021-2022. She will be teaching at the University of Opole in southern Poland. Opole is one…
Jordan Lovejoy (English) was selected as one of four OSU Arts and Sciences PhD students to proceed to the national ACLS Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellowship competition…
Dr. Sophia Enriquez (Ethnomusicology) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Music at Duke University, where she will also teach in the program for Latinx Studies in…
Amelia Mathews-Pett, ABD, passed her candidacy exams with sprightly elegance. Her committee consisted of Angus Fletcher, Jared Gardner, Merrill Kaplan, and Dorry Noyes as chair. She now moves…
S.C.O.P.E. (Student Community Of Progressive Empowerment) would like to cordially invite Undocumented Graduates and Allies to a Zoom Ceremony to acknowledge the accomplishments of Undocumented…
Dr. Amy Shuman moderated Bodies in Public Space | Bridging Distance in Arts and Humanities Methods and Practices for the Global Arts & Humanities Discovery Theme. Drs…
CFS Public Folklorist Dr. Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth gave a talk entitled "Community Ethnography and Sustainable Engagement: Case Studies from Appalachia" at the Nanyang…
Check out Jacob Kopcienski's (Musicology) article, "5 Questions to Elizabeth A. Baker about retrospectiveDisconnect" on I Care If You Listen. Learn more about Jacob's…
Kletchka, D. C. (2021). The epistemology of the basement: A queer theoretical reading of the institutional positionality of art museum educators. Museum Management &…
Dr. Sabra Webber (Professor Emerita) has published three essay blog posts about folklorist Alan Jabbour's family immigration saga for the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora…
Katherine Borland and Stephanie Aubry have secured a GAH+DT grant for a Border Issues and Activism Field School. The four day field school will visit sites of…
Congratulations to Dr. Dorothy Noyes, who was awarded the 2021 University Distinguished Scholar Award!
Dorothy Noyes, professor of English, comparative studies and…
Covid Conversations: Life in a Time of Corona, the Center for Folklore Studies podcast produced in collaboration with Ohio Humanities by Dr. Rachel Hopkin and supported by the Global Arts…
Dr. Cassie Rosita Patterson has been promoted to Associate Director (formerly she was Assistant Director) of the Center for Folklore Studies effective Feb 1, 2021. Congrats, Dr…
Fieldwork & Ethnography Panel presenters, Sarah Craycraft, Jordan Lovejoy, and Syndey Varajon created the Tried and True Advice from the Field…
In “Woke Pedagogies: An Arts & Sciences Approach to Excellence in Teaching” podcast, hosts Elena Foulis and David Staley discuss challenges within higher ed, giving…
Congratulations to Dr. Elena Foulis, whose article "Latin@s en la Fe: Gender, Solidarity, and the Common Good Among Latin@ Christians in Ohio" was published in the Journal of Hispanic / Latino…
Episode 4: Two world-class musicians are featured from two of the world’s greatest orchestras.
Mark Kosower is Principal Cello with the Cleveland Orchestra. He has been…
The Center for Folklore Studies mourns the loss of Dean "Pappaw" Bradbury, a friend of the Ohio Field School program.
Earl Dean Bradbury, beloved husband of the late Velma…
Professor Jared Gardner, the Joseph V. Denney Designated Professor of English and the director of the Popular Culture Studies program, has been named director of the Humanities…
The Center for Folklore Studies mourns the loss of David Brose, 1951-2021 to cancer. David was a Columbus, Ohio, native. After an early introduction to American traditional music,…
The Center for Folklore Studies has received a $25,000 Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme (GAHDT) Centers Grant, for its project: “Revisioning Folklore Studies in the Academy and the…
Alumna Dr. Elo-Hanna Seljamaa will give the plenary address at a Zoom conference on socialist/Soviet-era folkloristics from the University of Latvia.
Register here.
A…
Warmest congratulations to Mariah Marsden, whose sprightly oral defense capped her passing of her qualifying exams. Mariah’s committee consisted of Drs. Katey Borland, Dorry Noyes…
The Center for Folklore Studies mourns the passing of Dr. Jean (Mayo) MacLaughlin on October 27, 2020. Trained at the Folklore Institute at Indiana University (MA 1970, PhD 1977), Jean joined the…
Congratulations to Drs. Katherine Borland and Amy Shuman, who published a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Counter-Narratives.
Borland, Katherine and Amy Shuman. 2020. …
The Ohio Latino Affairs Commission Board recently elected its new leaders for the 44th board, including two representatives from The Ohio State University. Congratulations to …
Congratulations to Dr. Martha Sims, who successfully defended her dissertation, “Illness Tattoos: A Study of Embodied Traditions and Narratives.” Her committee included Drs. Amy Shuman …
During the Spring 2020 Ohio Field School, Lydia Smith and Jacob Kopcienski worked to document the cemetery in Rendville OH, a progressive and historically…
2020 Ohio Field Schooler, Evan DeCarlo, published "Placemaking and Blue Blazes: The Ohio Field School Comes to the BTA" for the summer issue of Trailblazer, the quarterly…
Alex, Stacey and Elena Foulis. "Be the Street: The Performative and Transformative Possibilities of Oral History." US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal, vol. 4, 2020,…
Check out folklore course offerings for spring 2021!
Some highlights for SP21 Graduate Courses include:
International Studies 4195: Selected…
Have you listened to the New Books in Folklore podcast? Alumni, Dr. Timothy Thurston and Dr. Rachel Hopkin are hosts of the podcast and were recently joined by …
Folkwise is Youtube channel created by a group of folklorists to explore the ways folklore connects to their personal and academic interests. The main hosts are spread out across…
The Center for the Study of Religion and the Center for Folklore Studies invite interested faculty and graduate students to join our 2020/2021 working group on Religion, Health, and Healing…
PhD Candidate Sarah Craycraft co-curated a photographic exhibit (along with Elena Stoycheva) as part of her participation in a three-week artist's residency in Deleyna, Bulgaria…
2013-2018 Archival Assistant Annie Craycraft is pursuing an MLIS at the University of Iowa. Annie shares, "working in the CFS archives is the entire reason I chose to pursue a…
Congratulations to PhD Candidate, Jordan Lovejoy (English), who was featured in a live Q&A session on 100 Days in Appalachia’s Instagram! Jordan fielded the age old question, “so,…
2019-2020 Archival Intern Benjamin Beachy was accepted into the MLIS program at Kent State University and has started his first semester. Beachy shares, "this fall semester is…
Congratulations to Drs. Borland, Patterson, and Waugh-Quasebarth on their recent publication about the Ohio Field School in the Journal of Folklore and Education's special issue on…
Congratulations to CFS Alumna, Dr. Rosemary Hathaway (English Department at West Virginia University), who recently published her book, Mountaineers Are Always Free: Heritage,…
Episode #1 of the CFS’s new podcast, Covid Conversations: Life in a Time of Corona, is LIVE! It features two wordsmiths and artists - Omope Daboiku who…
Congratulations to alumna, Dr. Nancy Yan, and OSU-IU Student Conference keynote speaker, Dr. Rachel Gonzàlez, on their recent podcast episode for New Books in Folklore! “In this podcast, we talk…
Greetings Folklorists and Allies,
It is my pleasure to welcome you back to campus (sort of) for what will certainly be an unusual year. The volatility of the virus as well as the…
During this peculiar summer of 2020, Ehsan Estiri finished and defended his Dissertation, Talking Back to America: Discursive Processes in Iranian Angelino Public Events (see below for…
Congratulations to Dr. Tessa Jacobs, who has just defended her timely dissertation, _Fire on Mountain Drive: Community Dynamics and Personal Narrative in a Wildfire-Prone Landscape_…
Congratulations to Dr. Danielle Schoon (Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) who, along with Harmony Bench (Dance), Yana Hashamova (Slavic), and Hannah Kosstrin (Dance), received…
We are delighted to announce that Nathan Young has successfully defended his dissertation, entitled Modernity’s Other: Nostalgia for Village Life in Turkey, an exploration of the many…
Congratulations to Dr. Ziying You, CFS alumna and Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies and East Asian Studies at College of Wooster, who served as guest editor for the special issue of …
Congratulations to Dr. Joe Campbell, Dr. Cassie Rosita Patterson, and Dr. Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, all members of the OSU Advisory Committee for the Ohio Field…
Congratulations to CFS core faculty member, Dr. Gabriella Modan who, along with her collaborators, Dr. Seuli Bose Brill (General Internal Medicine) and Nathan Richards (PhD…
Congratulations to Associated Faculty member, Dr. Isaac Weiner, whose American Religious Sounds Project received funding from the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Themes.
What does…
Drs. Glenn Martinez and Elena Foulis, along with collaborators, Dr. Fitzgerald, and Grad student Palo Pinillos Chavez received the The Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme grant ($18,000) for…
The Rendville Historical Preservation Society and the Center for Folklore Studies invite CFS affiliated students, faculty, and staff to explore voices of emancipation in Rendville Cemetery between…
Congratulations to Dr. Katherine Borland and Dr. Rachel Hopkin, who received a $25,000 grant from the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme for Covid Conversations: Life…
Congratulations to PhD Candidate, Jordan Lovejoy, whose chapter, "Redneck Memes as an Appalachian Reclamation of Vernacular Authority, Language, and Identity," was recently…
Dr. Dorothy Noyes was recently featured on the Department of English's Research Spotlight. In her interview, she discusses some of her current projects, including…
The winner of this year's Human Rights Award for the best graduate academic paper or multi-modal project related to the discourses of human rights is Jordan Woodward (Department…
Please extend your congratulations to Kati Fitzgerald (Department of Comparative Studies) who just successfully defended her brilliant dissertation, "No Pure Lands: The…
Congratulations to Dr. Afsane Rezaei (Department of Comparative Studies), who defended a fine dissertation in a lively discussion. Entitled “Agency Between Narratives: Women,…
Dr. Isaac Weiner, one of our Affiliates in the Department of Comparative Studies and Co-Director fo the American Religious Sounds Project, has shared this call:
Call For Sounds!
Caroline Toy successfully defended her dissertation, "Wizarding Shrines and Police Box Cathedrals: Re-envisioning Religiosity through Fan and Media Pilgrimages," on Friday March 20th. An…
Congratulations to Dr. Elena Foulis who has been named a recipient of the Community Engagement Scholar Award! This honor is a part of the OSU 2020 University Outreach and Engagement Awards.
Dear OSU Folklorists,
While you are likely coordinating directly with your respective departments and mentors about adjustments related to the Covid-19 pandemic, CFS leadership and staff are…
Please extend warmest congratulations to Afsane Rezaei, who will be headed to Utah State University’s Department of English this fall as Assistant Professor of Folklore and…
It is Ohio Habla’s 100th episode!! Dr. Elena Foulis started Ohio Habla November 2017 and today she published the podcast’s 100th episode.
What better way to celebrate than…
Jasmine Stork (PhD Candidate, Comparative Studies) was hired in January as the new Program Coordinator for the Undergraduate Fellowship Office in Honors & Scholars at OSU. She has…
Postdoc Moriah Flagler will continue on for a third year thanks to a $100,000 Community Engagement Grant from the Global Arts + Humanities discovery theme. In 2020-2021, Flagler…
Our very own Sydney Varajon (PhD candidate) was spotted in the Hallmark Channel film Christmas at Dollywood which aired in December. For Sydney it was fieldwork, of…
Check out CFS Director Dr. Katey Borland’s recent article on the Be The Street project in the Folklore Fellows News. In "Beyond Content Analysis: Narratives of Belonging…
Alumna, Dr. Kate Parker Horigan, was the Featured Folklorist on the American Folklore Society website this December. Check out her interview on the AFS website!
Dr. Mark Bender, chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, announced the publication of Meige, the translation of a version of a folk epic of the…
Sarah Craycraft will be featured in the upcoming Winter 2019 issue of OSU's alumni magazine. The story covers her participation in a Bulgaria-based program called Residencia Baba…
Congratualtions to Rachel Hopkin, who successfully defended her dissertation! Her committee included Amy Shuman, Advisor, Dorry Noyes, Katey Borland, and Ana Cara (from Oberlin College). The…
Congratulations to Dr. Christofer Johnson, who ably defended his dissertation, Fishing in Uncertain Waters: Resilience and Cultural Change in a North Atlantic Community. Chris and Miranda…
During the last Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society in Baltimore, our colleague Amy Shuman was awarded the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award. This award has been bestowed semi…
Folklore alumni, faculty and staff contributed to the edited collection, The Folklorist in the Marketplace: Conversations at the Crossroads of Vernacular Culture and Economics, just out…
Congratulations to CFS alumna Ziying You, whose co-edited volume Chinese Folklore Studies Today: Discourse and Practice has just been published by Indiana University…
Congratulations to Sophia Enriquez, who passed her doctoral exams last week with an interdisciplinary committee consisting of Danielle Fosler-Lussier (chair), Michelle Wibbelsman, Dorry Noyes, and…
Hearty congratulations go to Martha Sims, who passed her candidacy exams in August. Her committe was composed of Amy Shuman (director), Dorry Noyes, Merrill Kaplan, and Kay Halasek. She will…
Congratulations to Moriah Flagler, a postdoctoral fellow for the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery team and the Artistic Director for Be The Street. She has been awarded the Mentor of…
From CFS Director Katey Borland:
Greetings from your returning Director! It gives me great pleasure to introduce our first CFS Postdoc, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, who is joining us…
We are thrilled to announce that the Center for Folklore Studies has received $25,000 from the Columbus Foundation for the Ohio Field School. An initial donation of $100,000 from the…
Congratulations to Affiliated Faculty, Dr. Elena Foulis, who published a new eBook, Mi Idioma, Mi Comunidad, with recent grad, Stacey Alex (Department of Spanish & Portuguese)! Mi…
Congratulations to Madeleine Smith, who has passed her qualifying exams. She is moving forward to conduct oral history research with formerly incarcerated people, both prison reform/abolition…
Congratulations to Dr. Dorothy Noyes who will serve as a 2019-2020 Faculty Fellow for the Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Themes! Faculty Fellows will advise on priorities and opportunities for…
Congratulations to Smog Veil Records! CFS friend/English department alum Frank Mauceri and his team have just released “Peter Laughner,” a boxed set documenting the life, music, and music…
Ethnomusicology and folklore doctoral student Sophia Enriquez received a Global Arts and Humanities Graduate Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year. The fellowship will support Enriquez's…
The Global Arts + Humanities Graduate Team Fellowships are financial awards made on the basis of academic merit through a division-wide competition. These fellowships are given to recognize the…
Congratulations to Dr. Erin Bahl (PhD 2018), who has won the Computers and Composition Hugh Burns Award for the best dissertation in Computers and Composition Studies for 2018. Erin’s…
A one-of-a-kind resource developed by researchers at The Ohio State University and Michigan State University is breaking new ground in the area of religious studies by offering scholars and the…
Congratulations to Dr. Mark Bender who published The Nuosu Book of Origins: A Creation Epic from Southwest China! The book istranslated by Dr. Mark bender and Aku Wuwu from a transcription by…
Congratulations and bon voyage to Sarah Craycraft, who is headed out to Bulgaria tomorrow for a summer of language study and fieldwork after ably synthesizing a considerable range of scholarship…
On May 20 & 21 Dr. Cristina Benedetti and Sarah Hinkelman (graduate student in Anthropology and Ohio Field School alum) led a community self-documentation workshop with 12 juniors and seniors at…
Congratulations to recent folklore PhD, Amanda Randhawa, who will be a Visiting Assistant Professor in World Religions and Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies at Ohio University for the 2019-2020…
Congratulations to CFS alumna, Dr. Nicole Nieto, who was named one of the Glass Breakers of 2019 by the President & Provost's Council on Women! Glass Breakers shines a spotlight…
Tony Maggio (undergraduate minor in Folklore) is the winner of this year's Daniel R. Barnes Award for best undergraduate student paper. The reviewers had the following to say about Tony's essay,…
Sarah Craycraft received a research fellowship from the American Institute for Southeast European Studies to support her dissertation research on youth participation in rural revitalization in…
The Center for Folklore Studies was awarded a $15,000 grant from the Global Arts & Humanities Discovery Theme to support the spring 2020 Ohio Field School in Perry County, Ohio. This award is…
Congratulations to Emma Cobb (Comparative Studies) who has been awarded the 2019 Patrick B. Mullen Award for best graduate student paper!
The review committee sent the following comments…
The Center for Folklore Studies' Ohio Field School initiative has been awarded $26,035 from Ohio State's Connect & Collaborate grant, which is administered by the Office of Outreach and Engagement…
The Center for Folklore Studies received a grant from the Public Narrative Collaborative and the Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme to commission Molly Rideout for the Portsmouth Public Writing…
The Graduate Student Service Award for service to the Comparative Studies Department and its Students goes to Emma Cobb. Emma worked throughout the year as student rep to the…
The Margaret Lynd Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Teaching Associate went to Caroline Toy for her outstanding work in writing instruction, in integrating fan studies into her…
Congratulations to Sarah Craycraft, who won the Richard Bjornson Prize for best essay by a graduate student for her paper “The Mule as Motif in the Ohio Valley Research Project,” based on a mid…
Congratulations to Associated Faculty member, Dr. Elena Foulis (Spanish & Portuguese), and her student, Adriana Ponce De Leon, who spoke about the Ohio Habla! podcast on WOSU! Listen to their…
We Are the Stories We Tell: Remembering Rubén Herrera
By Dr. Elena Foulis
I started documenting Latina/o/x life in Ohio in 2014 to archive the stories of our community. I wanted to…
Alison Furlong (PhD in Ethnomusicology 2015) has returned to OSU as the new project coordinator for the American Religious Sounds Project. Prior to her grad work in ethnomusicology and folklore,…
Elena Foulis, senior lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, has received the Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer, which annually recognizes up to six lecturers,…
Dr. Kaplan is featured on the Department of English's Obsession Story series--read all about it!
The Center for Folklore Studies (CFS), within the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State University, seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher in Public Folklore to join our team. The College of Arts…
The Ohio Field School took over the Center for Folklore Studies' Instagram account during spring break to document their experience on site in Scioto County. Follow their adventure at @osu…
CFS alumna and honors advisor extraordinaire Dr. Joanna Spanos has just won the Arts and Sciences Staff Excellence Award, something that will come as no surprise to her students. Congratulations…
Congratulations to Sarah Craycraft, who is headed back to Bulgaria with a second FLAS fellowship to further her language study before she begins her fieldwork on rural revitalization in the autumn…
Congratulations to Mariah Marsden, who as of March 18th is MA in English, moving forward with her work on the intertwinings of print culture, agricultural work, and oral tradition in the Ozarks. …
Dr. Elena Foulis' article, "Participatory Pedagogy: Oral History in the Service-Learning Classroom" is featured as the resource of the month on
Sophia Enriquez, PhD student, ethnomusicology, has been selected as a 2019 National Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Fellow. During the summer of 2019 she will attend an intensive 3-week…
New digital galleries are being added to the archives website on the Center for Folklore Studies page, representing fieldwork done by students of the Ohio Field School. Check out Sudzy's Pinup…
In 2013 Rachel Hopkin was awarded a rare National Interest Waiver green card on the basis that, because of her work as a folklorist/radio producer with a special focus on traditional culture…
Nathan Young left for Turkey on February 1st for six months of fieldwork in Ankara. He says: "I am researching instances and means by which some Turks maintain connection to their alleged villages…
Amy Shuman has two new publications. First, with Katharine Young, “The Body as Medium: a Phenomenological Approach to the Production of affect in Narrative” in Edinburgh Companion to…
Join us in congratulating Jordan Lovejoy, who passed her qualifying exams today with flying colors and will be heading to southern West Virginia for fieldwork in January. We thank the committee-…
Dorothy Noyes, Professor in the Departments of English and Comparative Studies and former Director of the Center for Folklore Studies, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Folkloristics at the…
Two CFS PhD students, Tessa Jacobs and one anonymous, were granted the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Fellowship!
The Global Arts and Humanities Graduate Student Fellowship is a…
Dr. Mark Bender, professor and chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, was featured in the November 28, 2018 News & Updates from the College of Arts and Sciences. The…
The launch of Placemaking in Scioto County, Ohio traveling exhibit, a project of the Center for Folklore Studies' Ohio Field School initiative, was featured by the College of Arts and Sciences…
Center for Folklore Studies alumna, Dr. Sheila Bock, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, helps us to interpret Brett Kavanaugh’s…
Five doctoral candidates from the College of Arts and Sciences have been selected for funding under the 2018 U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA…
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Cleto, who defended her dissertation, "Bodies of Stories: Disability and Folklore in Nineteenth-Century British Literature." Her advisors were Ray…
Congratulations to Dr. Brittany Warman who successfully defended her dissertation on July 30th. Her thesis was entitled "The Fae, the Fairy Tale, and the Gothic Aesthetic in…
Four CFS folklorists--Jess Holler, Mariah Marsden, Laura Pearce (alumna), and Sydney Varajon--will join the Delaware County…
The Center for Folklore Studies is pleased to announce that The Columbus Foundation donated $5,000 to support preservation, digitization, and collection…
Congratulations to Cristina Benedetti, who reawakened our civic fervor with her able defense of her dissertation Dreams of Democracy, Logistics of Crowds: Public Gatherings on the National…
Congratulations to one of our Associated Faculty, Dr. Dana Carlisle Kletchka, who has been working hard to co-edit a book with colleague B. Stephen Carpenter, II, Professor of Art…
Bishal Karna successfully defended his dissertation this afternoon, titled "Skillful Ways: Soto Zen Buddhism in the American Midwest." His committee consisted of Dorothy Noyes (co-chair), Tom…
Kati Fitzgerald, a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Studies, was recently awarded a fellowship from the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies…
Congratulations to Tessa Jacobs, who was awarded the Patrick B. Mullen Graduate Prize for best graduate student paper for her essay, "Intertextual Storytelling within Family Narratives." Our panel…
Congratulations to Amanda Randhawa, who was selected as one of two winners of the Graduate School's Louise B. Vetter Award, which is sponsored by the Ohio State chapter of the Honor Society of Phi…
Congratulations to Ehsan Estiri, who has published a provocative article: “Politics of Traditionalization: Justification and Framing Processes in Historical Continuity of the Iranian Fire Festival…
Congratulations to Wenyuan (Winnie) Shao, who received an Academic Enrichment Grant from the Office of International Affairs for her dissertation fieldwork: “Deciphering Unheard Voices and…
Afsane Rezaei presented a paper based on her field work in Los Angeles at the Western Folklore Annual Meeting on April 14, 2018, entitled "The Ritual Fusion: Iranian-American Women's Faith-based…
CFS alum Dr. Kate Parker Horigan, Assistant Professor of Folk Studies at Western Kentucky University, has a book coming out this July from University Press of Mississippi. Consuming Katrina:…
Congratulations to our students moving on to great things! Dr. Erin Bahl will be moving to Atlanta to take up a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Applied and…
Congratulations to Tessa Jacobs, who is now a candidate for the PhD after having brilliantly defended her qualifying exam this afternoon. Tessa is working with Dorry Noyes, Katey Borland, Amy…
Dr. Elena Foulis received an academic enrichment grant from OIA to collect oral histories in Oaxaca. She will be traveling there this summer. The title of her project is: Oral Histories of Im…
The American Council of Learned Societies has just published Lake Erie Fishermen: Work, Identity, and Tradition (1990) as part of their Humanities E-book project, which also features…
Congratulations to Dr. Erin Bahl, who defended her dissertation “Refracting Webtexts: Invention and Design in Composing Multimodal Scholarship” this afternoon, with a committee composed of Christa…
Dr. Timothy Thurston, Lecturer in Chinese Studies at University of Leeds, conducted an interview with Dr. Dorothy Noyes for the New Books in Folklore podcast series. They discuss Dr…
Danielle V. Schoon was awarded a Common Reading Grant from UCAT for the Spring 2018 semester to support her facilitation of a book group. Faculty from NELC, Comp Studies, and Cultural Geography read…
Rachel Hopkin's essay entitled "Poetics and Pâtisserie: Multilayered Performances of Croissants” has just been published in volume 22, issue 7 of Performance Research. Congratulations!
…
Caroline Toy has published an article in the Journal of Fandom Studies, entitled "Constructing the fannish place: Ritual and sacred space in a Sherlock fan pilgrimage." Congratulations, Caroline!…
Elena Foulis recorded a new episode for the podcast Ohio Habla featuring Ana Puga, a faculty member of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and a P.I. for the Be the Street project…
2018 Summer Institute on Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage
June 2-12, 2018 • Santa Fe, New Mexico
The American Folklore Society invites…
Congratulations to Wenyuan Shao, who advanced to candidacy for the PhD yesterday after passing her exams with a committee of Mark Bender (chair), Meow Hui Goh, Dorry Noyes, and Patricia Sieber…
Bishal Karna has accepted a tenure-track position in the department of religious studies at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, beginning this August 2018. Congratulations, Bishal!
Dr. Elena Foulis has published a multimedia article titled "Oral History in the Digital Era: Oral Histories of Latin@s in Ohio" in Public: A Journal of Imagining America.
OSU alumna, Dr. Olivia Caldeira, was a featured panelist on WOSU's All Sides with Ann Fisher program to discuss the Speak Up/Stay Safe program she runs for the Center for…
Dr. Merrill Kaplan was interviewed for a WebMD article titled, "Legends Aside, Moon's Health Impact More of a Myth."
A new online journal of Greek America, Ergon, co-edited by Ohio State folklore affiliate Yiorgos Anagnostou, features an extended interview with Tarpon Springs folklorist Tina Bucuvalas…
Congratulations to Caroline Toy, who successfully passed her Candidacy Exams today. Committee members Merrill Kaplan, Isaac Weiner, Katey Borland and advisor, Hugh Urban, were impressed with the…
Faculty and graduate students from five departments, including Katherine Borland, Tessa Jacobs and Sydney Varajon from Folklore, are collaborating on a performance-based outreach project in the…
Mariah Marsden (English) took part in OSU's graduate student grade-in, held as part of the #SaveGradEd movement, and is pictured in Time Magazine's article about graduate student…
OSU Alumna Dr. Sheila Bock is featured in "Signs of the Times," an article that explores the decoration of graduation mortarboards. Sheila's project, titled “Decorated Mortarboards: Forms and…
Congratulations to Jasmine Stork, who has passed her candidacy exams and is now ABD! Jasmine's committee is comprised of Amy Shuman (English), Miranda Martinez (Comparative…
Congratulations to Amanda Randhawa, who was awarded the Presidential Fellowship to complete her dissertation: Being Punjabi Sikh in Chennai: Women’s Everyday Religion in an Internal Indian…
Dr. Elena Foulis started a podcast called Ohio Habla, as part of her oral history project about Latin@s in Ohio. This podcast explores the Latin@ experience and it will be recorded in English,…
Congratulations to Elena Foulis on her recent publication, titled "Historias: Latin@ Voices in Ohio." Elena's article comes out of the oral history project "Oral Narratives of Latin@s in Ohio,"…
Check your mailboxes for the JAF Special Issue on Family Folklore (130(518) Fall 2017), edited by Katherine Borland. In addition to co-writing with Patricia Sawin and Diane Tye the…
Dorry Noyes, President of the American Folklore Society will deliver the annual Richard M. Dorson Memorial lecture on Thursday, April 12th, 2018 at Indiana University. Go Dorry!
Ana Marina Alvarenga, FMLN deputy in the El Salvador Legislature, will be visiting the Center for Folklore Studies archives on November 3rd, 2017. Deputy Alvarenga will be accompanied by José…
Director Katherine Borland, Assistant Director Cassie Patterson, and Graduate Students Assistants Jordan Lovejoy and Sarah Craycraft presented at the 2018 Appalachian-Carpathian…
Dr. Elena Foulis attended the Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference in Birmingham, AL to give an oral history workshop. The title of her workshop is “Oral History as a Tool for Community…
Congrats to alumna Anne Henochowicz for her recent hire as Commissioning Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books!
Folklore graduate student in English, Rachel Hopkin, has been hard at work this summer! Hopkin presented Country Down Under, her BBC radio programme about Australian Aboriginal…
OSU Folklore Alum, Alan Govenar (B.A. with distinction in American Folklore), who worked with emeritus professor, Patrick Mullen, has produced a new documentary film about NEA National Heritage…
As part of the Humanities and Arts Discovery Theme Project, Human Rights in Transit, eight Ohio State students observed human rights work in New York City over the summer. Facilitated by…
OSU folklore alum Yücel Demirer has co-edited a special issue of the Turkish journal Praksis on Symbolic Politics (42, 2017). With articles by some of his students, the issue…
Affiliated faculty member, Dr. Elena Foulis, attended the NEH Summer Institute on Translation titled, "What's Gained in Translation," at Kent State Univeristy. Elena presented on…
Congratulations to Jasmine Stork, who graduated with her Masters in Public Health this summer! Her thesis is titled, "Blogs as a Public Health Research Tool: Lived Experiences of People of Size."…
On June 24th, Tim Thurston was featured in the podcast “Coffee and Cocktails” on “Early Career Researchers and the Job Market.”
Listen to the podcast episode!
Dorry Noyes participated in an Allegra Lab virtual roundtable, “'Collaborative Dilemmas' in the Age of Uncertainty,” considering how young researchers reconcile scholarly and policy agendas in…
Tim Thurston has completed a two year postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, where he worked with a team…
Congratulations to Bethani Turley for winning the 2017 Daniel R. Barnes Prize for her outstanding paper, "After the Spill: Environmental Justice and Disaster Relief in West Virginia."
Congratulations to Jordan Lovejoy, who won the 2017 Patric B. Mullen Award for her outstanding paper, Magic Wands, Moral Geographies, and Narrative Imagingings: Dwelling in the Desires of the…
Professor Dorothy Noyes was recently interviewed by Mershon News, a publication of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, about her new book, Sustaining Interdisciplinary…
Kudos to Kati Fitzgerald (Comp Studies), who has passed her exams and is now ABD! Kati's committee was composed of Hugh Urban, chair; Mark Bender, Melissa Curley, and Dorry Noyes.
Congratulations to Ehsan Estiri (NELC), who has passed his qualifying exams this afternoon! Ehsan's committee was composed of Morgan Liu, chair; Erik Nisbet, Dorry Noyes, and Sabra Webber.
Hearty congrats to Afsane Rezaei (Comparative Studies), who passed her candidacy exams and is now ABD! Afsane's committee was composed of Dorry Noyes, chair; Katey Borland, Morgan Liu, and Sabra…
CFS Assistant Director, Dr. Cassie Patterson, is a recipient of one of six 2017 Arts and Sciences Outstanding Staff Awards. The award recognizes staff members in the arts and sciences who have…
Kati Fitzgerald was awarded a Fulbright fellowship for dissertation fieldwork in China during the 2017 - 2018 academic year. Congratulations, Kati, and best of luck in your fieldwork!
Caroline Toy (Comparative Studies) is the 2017 recipient of the Iles Award for the Graduate Study of Myth! This grant, administered through the Center for the Study of Religion, will fund…
Congratulations to Dr. Yuanhao (Graham) Zhao, who successfully defended his dissertation in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures! Graham’s dissertation, "Space of mortality:…
March 14 is Humanities Advocacy Day! A record-breaking number of humanities advocates will be in Washington DC, to meet with hundreds of Members of Congress to make the case for federal funding…
Folklorists, CFS alumni, and current OSU alt-ac staffers, Dr. Joanna Spanos, Dr. Nicole Nieto, and Dr. Cassie Patterson were honored by their students for their mentorship at the Sphinx and Mortar…
Congratulations to Martha Sims, who is a recipient of The Ohio State University…
Elo-Hanna Seljamaa (PhD Comparative Studies 2012), current Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, created a new English…
On February 1, 2017, the AFS Executive Board issued the following statement:
The Executive Board of the American Folklore Society (AFS), a US-based international learned society whose members…
Congratulations to Cassie Patterson, whose chapter was recently published!
Patterson, Cassie. "Performance, Frame, and Identity in Harriette Simpson Arnow's 'The Goat Who…
Congratulations to Rachel Hopkin and Afsane Rezaei, who recently published articles in folklore journals!
Hopkin, Rachel. "The Critical Conservationist George Gibson and…
Georgios Anagnostou, professor, modern Greek and classics, received The Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program award to work with an interdisciplinary team at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki…
We are pleased to announce that Dorry Noyes has been elected President of the American Folklore Society (AFS) for the 2018-2020 term. Dorry has been a stalwart defender of folklore studies at OSU,…
Hearty congratulations to Brittany Warman, who was awarded the Department of English's Dissertation Completion Fellowship for Spring 2017. The fellowship offers a semester off from teaching to…
Congratulations to Rachel Hopkin, who achieved tanguicity on her candidacy exam this morning! Her committee included Amy Shuman, Katey Borland, Barry Shank, and Dorry Noyes as chair. Amy will lead…
Dr. Merrill Kaplan, core CFS faculty, engaged in discussion with open-carry protesters on Monday, December 5th, holding a sign that said "This makes me feel unsafe." Her comments are included in…
Congratulations to Gregg Vaillancourt, who with professorial demeanor passed his PhD qualifying exams this afternoon! His committee was chaired by Drew Jones, with Leslie Lockett, Merrill Kaplan,…
Congratulations to Christofer Johnson, who today passed the oral of his qualifying exams with flying colors and is now ABD. Chris is planning a dissertation on the adaptation strategies of fishing…
Core folklore faculty member Dr. Merrill Kaplan provides insight into the origins of Halloween for the College of Arts and Sciences in a Q&A session!
Professor Dorothy Noyes recently published a book entitled Humble Theory: Folklore's Grasp on Social Life.
Dr. Noyes offers an unforgettable glimpse of her craft and the many ways…
On Thursday, September 1st, Ohio State alumni Yücel Demirer and Derya Keskin-Demirer were permanently dismissed from their positions at Kocaeli University in Turkey under the statute of exception…
CFS Director Katherine Borland was awarded a Service-Learning Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences for the Ohio Field Schools project. These grants support the development of new and…
Affiliated faculty Georgios Anagnostou was interviewed by the Greek News Agenda on Greek America studies, Greek America and the role of the diaspora in rethinking Greece. Dr. Anagnostou is a…
Congratulations to Dr. Puja Batra-Wells, who just defended her dissertation, “Art/Work: Place-Making, Precarity, and the Performance of Artistic Occupational Identities in Columbus, Ohio.” Puja’s…
The Center for Folklore Studies is pleased to announce that the Columbus Foundation donated $100,000 to support two Ohio Field Schools that will take place in summer 2017 …
Dr. Elena Foulis will give a talk titled, Latin@ Stories Across Ohio: Oral History in the Digital Age, on Thursday, March 3 at the University of Arkansas. Foulis will discuss how she draws on…
We are delighted to announce that Amy Shuman has received the prestigious 2016 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. This is the university’s most prestigious teaching award, and recognizes a…
Congratulations to Center for Folklore Studies Director, Katherine Borland, for being elected to the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society for the 2016-2018 term!
Katherine…
Congratulations to Bishal Karna, who successfully passed his candidacy exams yesterday! Bishal's committee included Katey Borland, Melissa Curley, Tom Kasulis, and Isaac Weiner. Way to go, Bishal!…
Congratulations to Dr. Amy Shuman, who received a $20,000 Arts and Humanities Larger Grant for "Cartelami: New Discoveries from Northern Italy in the Allied Arts of Theater,…
Friend-to-folklore Lesley Ferris is directing a production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at OSU Theatre from Thursday, November 5 through Sunday, November 15th at the Thurber Theatre …
Vice President for Research, Caroline C. Whitacre, will feature the work of The Appalachian Project, Ohio in her State of Research Address this Thursday, October 22nd at 8:30am in the Ohio Union,…
Congratulations to Rachel Hopkin, whose audio documentary Banjo Pickin' Girls and Fiddlin' Women will air on Australia's National Radio on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The show focuses on…
Congratulations to Cristina Benedetti, who completed her PhD candidacy exam process with the oral defense. On her committee were Shilarna Stokes (Theatre), Isaac Weiner, Katey…
Chocolate cake and flowers were enjoyed in the Folklore Archives on Friday, July 17th, in celebration of CFS Assistant Director Cassie Patterson’s successful dissertation defense. Dr. Patterson’s…
New PhD Ziying You and Professor Dorothy Noyes contributed to a special issue of the Journal of Folklore Research (52:2-3), UNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Global Policy…
CFS faculty Dorry Noyes and Katherine Borland delivered talks at the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore Conference in Zagreb, Croatia on June 22nd. Their panel, entitled Gesturing…
Congratulations to Dr. Elena Foulis, who has published Latin@ Stories Across Ohio, an iBook available for free on iTunes. Latin@ Stories Across Ohio is a bilingual oral history book that documents…
Folklore alumna Sheila Bock has published an article based on her dissertation fieldwork: “Grappling to Think Clearly”: Vernacular Theorizing in Robbie McCauley’s Sugar,”
Cristina Benedetti, Graduate Archivist for the Center for Folklore Studies, has received a Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Grant from the American Folklife Center to conduct…
CFS Associated Faculty Dr. Issac Weiner was a guest on WOSU's All Sides with Ann Fisher! Dr. Weiner discussed the recent Pew Research Center report on America's Changing Religious…
Congratulations to Matthew Campbell, who defended his qualifying exams this morning with a committee headed by Ryan Skinner and Danielle Fosler-Lussier and completed by Barry…
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2015 Patrick B. Mullen Paper Prize for best graduate student paper and the 2015 Daniel R. Barnes Prize for best undergraduate student paper in…
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Hemmig, who successfully passed his oral examination on Tuesday, April 14th for his dissertation entitled: What Development? Poverty and the Struggle…
Double congratulations to Dr. Tim Thurston, who this morning defended a groundbreaking dissertation on Tibetan-language sketch comedy in the A mdo region of China, and who in July…
Kati Fitzgerald of the Department of Comparative Studies has been chosen as a recipient of the 2015 Robert L. and Phyllis J. Iles Award for Graduate Study of Myth, which is administrated by the…
Congratulations to Dr. Alison Furlong, who today defended her dissertation “Resistance Rooms: Sound and Sociability in the East German Church”for the Program in Musicology/Ethnomusicology. Alison…
Ziying You has accepted a two-year position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies at The College of Wooster. This position is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral…
Congratulations to Dr. Ziying You, who successfully defended her dissertation "Competing Traditions: Village Temple Rivalries, Social Actors, and Contested Narratives in Contemporary China” today…
Columbus Alive featured an article about David Thomas and his performance-talk on February 27th hosted about the CFS.
Ghost Cult Magazine also featured an article about the performance.
…
Congratulations to Christofer Johnson, whose advisory committee agreed this afternoon to confer on him the degree of Master of Arts in English. Chris will continue in the PhD program while he moves…
Please join us in congratulating Amy Shuman, who is a recipient of this year’s Distinguished Scholar Award. The Distinguished Scholar Award, established in 1978, recognizes exceptional scholarly…
Congratulations to Danille Christensen, who has just accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at Virginia Tech! She'll be teaching courses on material culture, folklore…
Our very own Tim Thurston has recently performed in a comedic sketch entitled "When worshipping at the Snow Mountain Labtse" that was aired as part of Qinghai Tibetan Television Station's New Year…
Tune in to hear one of the Center's associated faculty members, Isaac Weiner, Assistant Professor of Comparative Studies, discuss his book, Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space,…
Erika Eichhorn Bourguignon, 90, died in Columbus, Ohio, February 15, 2015. She was professor emerita of anthropology at The Ohio State University, where she taught…
Congratulations to Richelle Schrock who has received tenure at Ohio Wesleyan. Dr. Schrock completed her PhD in Folklore and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies in 2008 under the direction of Amy…
On November 23, CFS Director Dr. Katherine Borland and folklore graduate student Stephanie Aubry traveled to Fort Benning, just outside Columbus, Georgia to…
On November 12 and 19 Comparative Studies undergrads in Professor Katherine Borland's Global Folklore course embarked on a global conversation about global folklore in film with students from Prof…
Association for the Study of Food and Society's student paper prize competition. Deadline for Annual Submission: February 1. Electronic submissions ONLY! The ASFS…
Professor Dorothy Noyes recently published an article entitled "Aesthetic Is the Opposite of Anaesthetic: On Tradition and Attention" in The Journal for Folklore Research.
Amy Shuman and Bridget Haas (Case Western University) received a grant of $16,000 from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research to hold a workshop titled “Political Asylum and the…
It is with great pleasure that we announce that Dr. Katherine Borland has been named one of the inaugural Ratner Teaching Award winners! The Deans of Arts and Humanities, Comparative Studies…
The Center for Folklore Studies is pleased to announce that we received a generous $25,000 gift from donors at The Columbus Foundation. The anonymous gift will fund research, archival preservation…
Congratulations to former Appalachian Project volunteer and OSU alum, Mason Pierce on his new job as a full-time Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor in the Bureau of Labor Statistics in…
Congratulations to Dr. Elena Foulis, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, who recently produced a video introduction to her Oral Histories of Latinos/as in…
Congratulations to Dr. Katherine Borland who is the new Director of the Center for Folklore Studies
Congratulations to Appalachian Project member Kayley Kick, who received an internship this year with the Governor's Office of Appalachia! Hayley is now the second AP student to fill this role,…
Congratulations to former Center for Folklore Studies Office Assistant Rachel Paiscik (B.A. in Folklore and Arabic, 2013) who has recently started her job as International Student Advisor at Case…
We are pleased to announce the happy news that the Board of Trustees have approved the promotion of Sabra Webber to full professor. We all know Sabra as a leading scholar of vernacular North…
Professor Dorry Noyes recently published an article entitled "Heritage, Legacy, Zombie: How to Bury the Undead Past" in Cultural Heritage in Transit: Intangible Rights as Human Rights,…
Congratulations to Cassie Bower, who has just completed her MA in English and Folklore! Cassie and her partner Jim are moving shortly to Rhode Island, where Jim will be studying…
Jason Whitesel, one of Professor Amy Shuman's former students, recently published his dissertation, titled, Fat Gay men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma. Congratulations,…
Congratulations to Ziying and Zuchao Shen on their new son Enle Lucas Shen, who was born on May 29, 2014 at 7lbs 13.6oz, and 21" long! Ziying reports that he is healthy and happy.
Warm…
Join us in welcoming next year's Folklore Student Association Executive Committee!
Graduate Co-Chair: Sara Cleto, English
Undergraduate Co-Chair: Mantej Sandhu…
On April 26 at the Center for Folklore Studies end-of-year potluck, Patrick Mullen presented our annual student paper prizes: the Patrick B. Mullen Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper and the…
Several folklorists were honored in year-end departmental celebrations.
At the Department of Comparative Studies Awards Ceremony:Katey Borland received the student-chosen…
On Friday, April 18th, Professor Amy Shuman was surprised in the middle of class by a delegation of administrators, colleagues, and students and informed that she has won the…
Dr. Elizabeth Bell, currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. In the fall Liz will take up a position at Ball State University as Assistant Professor…
Dr. Amy Shuman and Susan Hetrick (from the Center for Disability Empowerment), who were awarded a grant from Employment First for $137,000 to promote self-advocacy and employment…
Folklorist, author, and Senior Lecturer in English Martha Sims was featured on the English Tumblr earlier this month.
Congratulations to Cassie Bower, who passed her Advisory Meeting today and is now an MA in English!
Congratulations to Danille Christensen and to
Ben Gatling (PhD, NELC 2012), currently a post-doc in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University, will be starting in the fall as Assistant Professor in the Department of…
Kate Horigan (PhD, English 2013), currently Visiting Lecturer at the Folklore Institute at Indiana University, will become Assistant Professor in the Department of Folk Studies…
Folklore Graduate Student Ziying You has been awarded the 2014 Tien-Yi Li Award by the Chinese Faculty in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, a prize given annually to an…
This is an annual $200 cash award for the year's best folklore paper by an OSU undergraduate. It honors beloved emeritus professor Daniel R. Barnes, who taught folklore and literature courses in…
The Center for Folklore Studies has a small number of one- or two-semester fellowships available for post-candidacy PhD students during the 2014-2015 academic year. The fellowships provide the…
An exhibit of colorful Chinese folk prints hung around doors and in homes during Chinese New Year is now on display in the Hagerty Hall Lobby. The exhibit of over 40 prints is curated by Dr. Ji…
Congratulations to alumna Sheila Bock on her recent publication in Health, Culture & Society, titled "Staying Positive: Women's Illness Narratives and the Stigmatized Vernacular" …
Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto just completed her Ph.D. at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Her dissertation was titled "A Greasy-Skinned Worker – Gender, Class, and Work in the…
OSU Alumna Kaitlyn Berle is currently in her first year of the Folk Studies Masters Program at Western Kentucky University, working as a Graduate Assistant on the Allen County…
Center for Folklore Studies Director, Dorothy Noyes, published an article titled "Salomonova presuda: globalna zaštita tradicije i problem vlasništva zajednice." (Trans. of "The…
Congratulations to Dr. Katherine Borland, whose chapter "From Hip-Hop and Hustle to Mambo and Salsa: New Jersey’s Eclectic Salsa Dance Revival" appears in the recently published book Salsa…
Congratulations to CFS Assistant Director Cassie Patterson on receiving a Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant! Cassie received $1000 towards her dissertation research in…
Congratulations to Kelly Schultz on the defense of her MA thesis! Kelly is a Folklore GIS student, and her areas of study include Folklore, Religious Studies, Refugee Studies,…
Congratulations to Puja Batra-Wells on passing her qualifying exams! Her exam areas were Popular Culture and Critical Theory, Material Culture, and Visual Culture. Puja is now ABD…
Ohio State faculty, staff, and students presented at the 2013 American Folklore Society Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island October 16-19, titled "Cultural Sustainability." Their names and…
Congratulations to our incoming student, Christofer Johnson, who presented his paper “‘And aa That’s Scotch Aboot it is the Name’: A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistleand the Disappearance of Scottish…
Congratulations to Dr. Joanna Spanos, who today successfully defended her dissertation, "Redeeming Susanna Cox: A Pennsylvania German Infanticide in Community Tradition." Her…
Congratulations also to Dr. Justin Acome, who defended his dissertation on Bluegrass Nonsense Politics. Sonja Amadae from political science was the chair, and the committee…
OSU alumna Kate Horigan was interviewed about urban legends this week on Indiana public radio! Dr. Horigan is a visiting professor at Indiana University's Department of Folklore and…
Congratulations Levi and Aida Gibbs, who welcomed their baby daughter, Rose Gibbs, at 11:14pm on Sunday, August 18, weighing in at 8 lbs. 7 oz.
Congratulations to Ziying You, who raised $2,522 USD to assist flood victims as they rebuild their homes and lives in Hongtong, Shanxi, China after a recent devastating flood…
As part of a general relocation of Centers within the Division of Arts and Humanities, the Center for Folklore Studies will be leaving its premises in Dulles and consolidating with the Folklore…
With impressive celerity, Ann Ferrell has turned her dissertation into a book — and one bound to get plenty of attention for its nuanced portrayal of a charged and changing…
Dennis Aig, former Pat Mullen student, who last year shared with us his experience converting folklore field skills into documentary production, has just begun a term as Interim…
Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Yan who successfully defended her dissertation, "Negotiating Authenticity: Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants," on July 12,…
Mark Bender and his wife Fu Wei's photo exhibition,"Raiment of Zomia," located in the entry of Hagerty Hall, features the appliquéd and embroidered folk costumes of the southeast…
Cristina Benedetti, Dr. Katey Borland, Martha Sims,and Cassie Patterson are volunteering at the Community Festival Museum (ComFest) as part of a growing partnership between the two organizations…
Congratulations to The Appalachian Project (sponsored by the Center for Folklore Studies and the Office of Student Life, and housed in the Folklore Archives) on their recent feature in OSU Today's…
Warm congratulations to Mark Bender, who will shepherd the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures beginning this coming fall. We know that as Chair he will be wise,…
Kudos to Cassie Patterson, Dr. Patty Cunningham, and Krista Bryson, who have won a $15,000 grant from the Governor's Office of Appalachia (a division of the Ohio Development Services Agency) for …
FSA members Puja Batra-Wells, Cristina Benedetti and Rachel Paiscik joined the Central Ohio Student Advocates for the Arts in attending National Arts Advocacy Day in Washington D.C. April 8-9…
Congratulations to Dr. Levi Gibbs, for yesterday defending his dissertation "Song King: Tradition, Social Change, and the Contemporary Art of a Northern Shaanxi Folksinger,"…
Congratulations to the newly-elected 2013-2014 Folklore Student Association Executive Board:
Graduate Co-Chair: Cristina Benedetti
Undergraduate Co-Chair: Ryan Johnson
Treasurer:…
The 2013 Patrick B. Mullen Prize for best graduate student paper was awarded to Joanna Spanos for "But Why a Hanging? Festival, Reenactment, and Social Memory."
One of the…
Galey Modan presented “The Personal is spatial, the spatial is personal: 'Jewish talk' in Amsterdam” for the keynote address at the Symposium on Locating Language: The Linguistics of Place for the…
Congratulations to Dr. Kate Horigan for successfully defending her dissertation, "'They probably got us all on the news': Personal Narratives and Public Trauma in Post-Katrina New…
Congratulations to English major and folklore student, Sarah Craycraft, who received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Bulgaria. Sarah will be teaching English…
Ziying You (East Asian Languages and Literatures), along with the support of her husband, department, and the Folklore Student Association, hosted a silent auction on Friday,…
Assistant Director, Cassie Patterson, convened and presented for two roundtables at the 36th annual conference of the Appalachian Studies Association (March 22-25). Cassie presented "Building an…
Folklore PhD student Tim Thurston, engaging in intensive reflexive ethnography during his fieldwork, was married to Tashi Tsomo, a local activist and student of ecotourism and…
The Center for Folklore Studies relied on local talent to create an advertisement to recruit folklore minors. The "hipster ad," as we've come to call it, will run for the next three weeks on…
The Journal of Folklore Research has just published an important special issue, The Stigmatized Vernacular (JFR 49:2, 2012) with papers from the AFS panel co-organized by Amy…
Warmest congratulations to Levi Gibbs, who will take up a position this fall as Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth College…
Ohio State University's Project Narrative is offering a summer institute on Narrative Theory for the Humanities and Social Sciences from June 3, 2013 - June 14, 2013. Our very own Amy Shuman will…
Congratulations to OSU folklore Emeritus Professor, Patrick Mullen and alumnus, Aaron Oforlea, who co-wrote "Introduction: Critical Race Theory and African American Folklore" for the recent…
Congratulations to Rachel Paiscik for receiving an internship with the Ohio Craft Museum! Rachel is a senior undergraduate majoring in Arabic and Folklore, as well as the CFS…
Congratulations to Cassie Patterson, CFS Assistant Director, for receiving a Staff Career Development Grant for the 2013 year. The grant will help to support her travel to Rhode…
Center for Folklore Studies alumna, Anne Henochowicz was recently interviewed by Al-Jazeera about the Chinese protests for press freedom. There is a full-length audio recording of…
Congratulations to alumnus Dr. Eric Shepherd on receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at the University of South Florida! Shepherd teaches in the Department of World Language…
The Toledo Blade interviewed Elizabeth Bell, Senior Lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese, about the upcoming December 21, 2012 apocalypse predictions. Bell explains that…
Several members of The Ohio State University folklore community participated in the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society in New Orleans, Louisiana from October 24th-27th. The theme…
The Center for Folklore Studies is delighted to announce that the College of Arts and Sciences of the Ohio State University has created two new graduate fellowships targeted for folklore students…
The American Folklore Society’s 2012 Zora Neale Hurston Prize, given to a graduate or undergraduate student for the best work in any medium on African American folklore, was awarded to Kate Parker…
This week the English department's blog features the Disability Studies program, currently directed by our own Amy Shuman. Look for an interview in which Amy discusses contemporary cultural…
Levi Gibbs, Ph.D. student in Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, was recently featured in the 2012 Global Newsletter of the Office of International Affairs. Gibbs spent 10 months…
Congratulations to Will Pooley on his recent publication in Western Folklore! In his article, "Can the ‘Peasant’ Speak?: Witchcraft and Silence in Guillaume Cazaux’s 'The…