AFS Prizes

The American Folklore Society recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of folklore by awarding six major prizes. Most of these prizes are named for remarkable folklorists, and you can find information about all of them by clicking on the name links below. Taken together, the recipients of these prizes embody excellence in all the forms of folklorists' work.

The American Folklore Society Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award, given every other year for outstanding accomplishments over a career of scholarship

The Benjamin A. Botkin Prize, given every year to recognize outstanding achievement in public folklore

The Chicago Folklore Prize, given every year to the author(s) of the best scholarly monograph in folklore

The Kenneth Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic Leadership, given in odd-numbered years for outstanding achievement in the building and strengthening of academic programs in folklore

The Zora Neale Hurston Prize, given every year for the best student work in any medium on African American folklore

The Américo Paredes Prize, given every year to recognize excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with the people and communities one studies, or in teaching and encouraging scholars and practitioners to work in their own cultures or communities

All these prizes are awarded every year as part of the Wednesday evening opening ceremony at the Society’s annual meeting.

Many interest-group sections of the Society also give prizes to recognize achievement in their own areas of interest; for information, please see AFS Section Prizes.

American Folklore Society Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award

This award is bestowed 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 $500 prize, a medal, and lifetime membership in the Society.

The next review of nominations will take place in 2008. To nominate a candidate for the award, submit four copies of a cover letter and supporting materials detailing the rationale for the candidate's nomination, with an electronic copy of the cover letter sent by e-mail, by February 15, 2008, to Timothy Lloyd, Executive Director, American Folklore Society, Mershon Center, Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201 USA; lloyd.100@osu.edu.

Nominees not selected in the year of their original nomination are kept in consideration for two more reviews.

Supporting materials should include a CV or list of scholarly positions; publications and other scholarly productions; professional and university service; degrees; awards, grants, and honors. Other materials in the nominating package, numbering less than 25 pages, 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.

Past AFS Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award Recipients:

W.F.H. Nicolaisen, University of Aberdeen, emeritus of the State University of New York at Binghamton (2002)

Linda Dégh, Indiana University, emerita (2004)

Don Yoder, University of Pennsylvania, emeritus (2006)

Benjamin A. Botkin Prize

Each year, the Public Programs Section of the American Folklore Society joins with the AFS Executive Board to award the Benjamin A. Botkin Prize of $200 to an individual for significant achievement in public folklore. This prize is given in recognition of the work of Benjamin A. Botkin (1901-1975). Eminent New Deal-era folklorist, national folklore editor of the Federal Writers’ Project in 1938-1939, advocate for the public responsibilities of folklorists, author and complier of many publications on American folklore for general audiences, and head of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress from 1942 to 1945, Botkin has had a major impact on the field of public folklore and on the public understanding of folklore.

The review criteria are:

Engagement of a broad public audience in the materials of folklore

Impact on the field of public folklore: development of models, methodology, visibility, advocacy

Impact on communities/constituents and their traditional culture

Contributions to the body of materials of folklore/public folklore

Quality of artistry in presentation: writing, photography, stagecraft, etc.

Quality of scholarship

Impact on the discipline of folklore, its theories and methodology

Quality/adequacy of nomination package itself

Breadth of support, as evidenced by letters from community members and non-folklorists in addition to folklore colleagues

The deadline for nominations is September 1, 2008. Please direct nominations, as well as your questions, to Botkin Prize Committee chair Elaine Thatcher of Utah State University's Mountain West Center for Regional Studies.

Nominations should include a letter of nomination; a one- or two-page biography or resume of the nominee; three to five letters of support from a broad range of people, including community members who have benefited from the nominee's work and people from outside the folklore field in addition to colleagues. Letters should specifically address the review criteria listed above and should explain how the nominee has taken folklore to a broad public audience.

All nomination letters and support material must be submitted in electronic format so they can be distributed easily and quickly to the committee members. Nominations remain active for three years. Previous nominators should contact Thatcher to ensure that their nominations are still in the pool, to arrange to send electronic versions of materials previously sent in hard copy, and to inquire about adding new or updated materials to those nominations.

Past Benjamin A. Botkin Prize Recipients:

Bess Lomax Hawes, folklore scholar, performer, and advocate, formerly of the National Endowment for the Arts (1994)

Archie Green, folklore scholar and advocate-at-large (1995)

Jane Beck, founder of the Vermont Folklife Center (1996)

Dan Sheehy of the National Endowment for the Arts and Joe Wilson of the National Council for the Traditional Arts (1997)

Jim Griffith of the Southwest Folklife Center (1998)

Richard Kurin of the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999)

Bobby Fulcher of the Tennessee State Parks (2000)

Hal Cannon of the Western Folklife Center (2001)

Robert Baron of the New York State Council for the Arts and Nick Spitzer of the University of New Orleans and National Public Radio (2002)

Alan Jabbour of Washington, DC, formerly of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress (2003)

Jens Lund, independent folklorist of Olympia, Washington (2004)

James Leary, University of Wisconsin (2005)

Elaine Thatcher, Utah State University (2006)

Steve Zeitlin, City Lore (2007)

Chicago Folklore Prize

First awarded in 1928, the Chicago Folklore Prize, awarded to the author(s) of the best book-length work of folklore scholarship for the year, is the oldest international award recognizing excellence in folklore scholarship. Occasionally, a joint recipient or a second-place recipient are also selected. The prize is offered jointly by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago.

From its inception, the administrators and judges for the prize have interpreted “folklore” in a broad and inclusive sense, and winners have traditionally come from the fields of folklore study, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, literary study, anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, and dance ethnology. The recent recipients of the prize provide a sense of the disciplinary range represented in the competition.

1998: Jane Sugarman. Engendering Song: Singing and the Social Order at Prespa Albanian Weddings (University of Chicago Press)

Second place: Regina Bendix. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies (University of Wisconsin Press)

1999: Susan Slyomovics. The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Second place: Harold Scheub. Story (University of Wisconsin Press)

2000: Glenn Hinson. Fire in My Bones: Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Second place: John D. Niles. Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Tradition (University of Pennsylvania Press)

2001: Daniel W. Patterson. A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver (University of North Carolina Press)

2002: Linda Dégh. Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre (Indiana University Press)

2003: Bill C. Malone. Don't Get Above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class (University of Illinois Press)

2004: Enrique R. Lamadrid. Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption (University of New Mexico Press); and Barre Toelken. The Anguish of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West (Utah State University Press)

2005: Marcia Gaudet. Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (University Press of Mississippi)

2006: Jo Farb Hernández. Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain (University Press of Mississippi)

2007: Cristina Bacchilega. Legendary Hawai’i and the Politics of Place: Tradition, Translation, and Tourism (University of Pennsylvania Press); and James P. Leary. Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music (Oxford University Press)

We encourage entries from scholars in folklore and their publishers all over the world. Works submitted must be monographs published in 2007 or within one year of the next submission deadline, April 1, 2008.

We will not consider articles, dissertations, reissues of older works (unless they have been substantially revised and rewritten), editions of works by others, or works-in-progress for the prize. A modest cash award is made to the winner or winners of the prize. If no entry is deemed worthy, no prize will be awarded. The winner/s will be announced at the October 2008 annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in Louisville.

If you have questions, please direct them to American Folklore Society executive director Timothy Lloyd at lloyd.100@osu.edu. Please submit three copies of your entry to: 2008 Chicago Folklore Prize, American Folklore Society, Mershon Center, The Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus OH 43201 USA.

Kenneth Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic Leadership

This award is named for Kenneth Goldstein (1927-1995), chair and for many years the guiding force behind the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. It recognizes outstanding abilities and achievement by a living scholar in academic leadership relating to folklore. "Leadership" includes folklore program development, organizational and center development, teaching, and advising. The awardee is honored at the American Folklore Society annual meeting, and is given a $500 prize, a plaque, and lifetime membership in the Society.

The next review of nominations will take place in 2009. To nominate a candidate for the award, send four copies of a cover letter and supporting materials detailing the rationale for the candidate's nomination, with an electronic copy of the cover letter sent by e-mail, by February 15, 2009, to AFS Kenneth Goldstein Award, American Folklore Society, Mershon Center, Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201 USA; lloyd.100@osu.edu.

Nominees not selected in the year of their original nomination are kept in consideration for two more reviews.

Supporting materials should include a CV or list of program, advising, and teaching positions; university and professional service; publications and other scholarly productions; degrees; awards, grants, and honors. Other materials in the nominating package, numbering less than 25 pages, may also include letters from colleagues, former and current students, syllabi and course descriptions, press on the program and candidate, and other evidence that speaks to excellence in program development and leadership, teaching, and advising.

Past Kenneth Goldstein Award Recipients:

Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, University of Maine, emeritus (2003)

Roger D. Abrahams, University of Pennsylvania, emeritus (2005)

Elaine Lawless, University of Missouri (2007)

Zora Neale Hurston Prize

This prize of $100 is named for the pioneering folklorist, ethnographer, and creative writer who lived from 1891 to 1960, worked in and wrote extensively about African American communities throughout the southern U.S., and is internationally known for her folklore collection Mules and Men (1935) and her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), as well as other notable works. The prize is given to a graduate or undergraduate student for the best work in any medium—including but not limited to papers, films, sound recordings, or exhibitions—on African American folklore.

Works submitted for prize consideration do not have to be about Hurston herself. One of the past prize-winning works was a graduate research paper that resulted in a thesis, another was a course paper written by a graduate student and later published as an article in the journal Southern Folklore, and the most recent was an ethnography project conducted by an undergraduate student for a senior seminar course.

The next deadline for nominations is August 31, 2008. Please send three copies of your submission, with an electronic copy of all paper submissions and cover letters sent by e-mail, to AFS Zora Neale Hurston Prize, American Folklore Society, The Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus OH 43201 USA; lloyd.100@osu.edu.

Nominees not selected in the year of their original nomination are kept in consideration for two more reviews.

Past Zora Neale Hurston Prize Recipients:

Edward Lessor, Florida State University, for his paper "Finding Your Feet in Fiction: Zora Neale Hurston's Experimental Ethnography" (1996)

Krista Thompson, Emory University, for her paper "Performing Ethnography in Zora Neale Hurston's 'The Great Day'" (1997)

Peter J. Brownlee, George Washington University, for his paper "'Where De Water Drink Lak Cherry Wine': The Importance of Zora Neale Hurston's Work in Polk County, Florida; Honorable Mention to Yolanda Hood, University of Missouri, Columbia, for her paper "The Crafter and the Craft: Postmodernism and the African American Quilting Tradition" (1998)

Patrick A. Polk, University of California, Los Angeles, for his article "Other Books, Other Powers: The 6th and 7th Books of Moses in Afro-Atlantic Folk Belief" (2000)

Amy McKibbin, Florida State University, for her paper "Folklore Beliefs in African-American Families" (2001)

Antony Cherian and Mark Westmoreland, University of Texas, Austin, for their film Truth I Ever Told (2002)

Wanda Addison, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, for her paper "Self-Representation Through Discourse: Bertha Handy's Mirrored Ideology" (2003)

Quan Lateef, Howard University, for her paper "The Rap That Binds: The Evolution of Hop Hop" (2004)

Scott Edmondson, University of California, Los Angeles, for his film "I Seen and I Know": Testimony From a Los Angeles Storefront (2005)

Tracy Carpenter, The Ohio State University, for her paper "The Construction of the Crack Mother Icon" (2007)

Américo Paredes Prize

Each year, the AFS Task Force on Cultural Diversity, Chicana/Chicano Section, and Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano, y Caribeño Section join with the AFS Executive Board to give this prize of $200, which recognizes excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with the people and communities one studies, or in teaching and encouraging scholars and practitioners to work in their own cultures or communities.

Américo Paredes (1915-1999), a leading scholar in folklore and Greater Mexico studies, worked relentlessly throughout his life, in the words of Olga Najera-Ramirez, "to better understand, represent, and respect the rights, lives, and culture of U.S. Latinas and Latinos."

Paredes contributed significantly to the formation of various intellectual trends and in particular to the scholarship on "native" folklorists and anthropologists; indeed, he trained several generations of "natives." He was the first Mexican American to receive a Ph.D. at the University of Texas, where he taught from 1958 until his retirement in 1984.

The Paredes Prize recognizes his contributions to the field and to the Society, gives respect to his memory, and recognizes exemplary achievements that build upon his cross-disciplinary, socially engaged legacy.

The prize may be awarded for many forms of accomplishment, including products such as a book, article, software package, or exhibit; or on the basis of the overall impact of the nominee’s engaged teaching and scholarship, or her/his fostering of work in one’s own community or culture.

The next deadline for nominations is August 31, 2008. To nominate a candidate, send a letter describing how the nominee has achieved excellence in either or both of the achievements the Prize recognizes, with an electronic copy sent by e-mail, to AFS Américo Paredes Prize, American Folklore Society, Mershon Center, Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201 USA; lloyd.100@osu.edu.

Nominees not selected in the year of their original nomination are kept in consideration for two more reviews.

Past Américo Paredes Prize Recipients:

William A. Wilson, Brigham Young University, emeritus (2002)

Norma Cantú, University of Texas, San Antonio (2003)

C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell, Michigan State University Museum (2004)

Enrique Lamadrid, University of New Mexico (2005)

The El Rio Project (2006)

Barre Toelken, Utah State University, emeritus (2007)

AFS Section Prizes

Many AFS interest-group sections also sponsor prizes for good work in a variety of media. Read the summaries below and follow the links for more information. For information about section prizes with no link, please contact the AFS executive director.

Brenda McCallum Prize of the Archives and Libraries Section

$100, Annual deadline: September 15. For an exceptional work dealing with folklife archives or the collection, organization, and management of folklife materials.

W.W. Newell Prize of the Children's Folklore Section

$100, Annual deadline: varies. For the best student essay on children's folklore.

Opie Prize of the Children's Folklore Section

$200, Annual deadline: varies. For the best book-length treatment of children's folklore.

Opie Award of the Children's Folklore Section

Non cash award; recipients receive a special medal. For a lifetime achievement in the study of children's folklore.

Aesop Prize of the Children's Folklore Section

Non-cash award; book list is announced annually as recipients of Aesop Award and Aesop Accolades for outstanding illustrated children's publications utilizing folkloric themes.

Jonathan T.Y. Yeh Memorial Student Prize of the Eastern Asia Folklore Section

$500 prize for the best undergraduate or graduate student paper that contributes to Asian or Asian American folklore studies through research and analysis. Deadline: July 1. Details regarding submissions and judging are available in the Eastern Asia Folklore Section page.

Don Yoder Prize of the Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section

$400 prize for the best undergraduate or graduate student paper in folk belief or religious folklife. Deadline: Sept. 15. Details regarding submissions and judging are available in the Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section page.

Dorothy Howard Folklore and Education Prize of the Folklore and Education Section

$50, Annual deadline: July 1. For work which effectively encourages K-12 educators or students to use or study folklore and folkloristic approaches in all school environments. Additional information for this prize is available on the Folklore and Education Section page.

General Scholarship in Foodways of the Foodways Section

$100, Bi-annual deadline: September 15. For publications on any aspect of foodways. Additional information is available on the Foodways Section page.

Sue Samuelson Award of the Foodways Section

$100, Annual Deadline: October 1. For best student paper on traditional food or foodways. Additional information is available on the Foodways Section page.

Wayland Hand Prize of the History and Folklore Section

$100, Bi-annual deadline: May 1. For the best book combining history and folklore methods and topics. Additional information for this prize is available on the History and Folklore Section page.

Richard Reuss Prize of the History and Folklore Section

$100, Bi-annual deadline: June 1. For a student paper on a subject dealing with the history of folklore studies. Additional information for this prize is available in the History and Folklore Section page.

Raphael Patai Prize for Excellence in Jewish Folklore or Ethnography of the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Section

$100, Annual deadline: September 1. For a publishable student paper, graduate or undergraduate, in the field of Jewish folklore or ethnography. Information is available in the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Section page.

Student Prize of the LGBTQ Folklore Section

$100. Annual deadline: September 1. For the best student paper or production on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer folklore. Additional information for this prize is available in the LGBTQ Section page.

Bertrand H. Bronson Student Prize of the Music and Song Section

$100, Annual deadline: August (varies). For an outstanding student project combining research and analysis of some aspect of traditional music or song. Additional information for this prize is available on the Music and Song Section page.

William Still Citation for Life Grassroots Cultural Work of the Politics, Folklore and Social Justice Section

$100, Annual deadline: August 15. For work through folk and traditional arts or other form of cultural work that has benefited the community. Additional information for this prize is available in the Politics, Folklore and Social Justice Section page.

Dan Crowley Memorial Research Award of the Storytelling Section

$100 US given for an outstanding student paper exploring the process of storytelling. Annual deadline: June 1. For further information on the Dan Crowley Award, visit the Storytelling Section page.

Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize of the Women's Section

$250, Annual deadline: July 15. For outstanding work on women's traditional, vernacular, and local culture and/or work on feminist theory and folklore. Additional information for this prize is available in the Women's Section page (PDF).

Elli Köngäs-Maranda Student Prize of the Women's Section

$100, Annual deadline: varies. For the best student paper or production on women's traditional, vernacular, and local culture and/or work on feminist theory and folklore. Additional information for this prize is available in the Women's Section page (PDF).