Politics, Folklore, and Social Justice Section
The Politics, Folklore, and Social Justice Section of the American Folklore Society has two main purposes: to promote the study of the relationship of folklore to politics and the politics of everyday life, and to provide a voice within the American Folklore Society for issues of social justice and to apply our work with a vision of a more just and equitable world. We have about 70 members.
The section was founded at the AFS meeting in Jacksonville in 1992. Auspiciously, on the very day the section was founded, Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Membership is open to all, and costs $5, with a special $2 rate for students, retired and low income people. Membership is not restricted to AFS members.
Activities of the PFSJ section have included the sponsorship of the 12-panel symposium on applied folklore at the 1996 AFS meeting in Pittsburgh. Selections from these panels were published in the Journal of Applied Folklore. In 2002, the section sponsored a series of four panels on the theme "Silenced Voices" at the Annual Meeting in Rochester, New York.
In memory of our colleague David Shuldiner, a pioneering folklorist and oral historian, lifelong activist for social justice and human dignity, and founder of the journal Folklore In Use, in 2003 the section inaugurated a series of David Shuldiner Memorial Lectures, normally to be delivered at the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society. The topic will come from an area of David's professional interests, such as folklore and social struggle, oral history, gerontology, and folk ideology. Shuldiner lecturers are activists, community scholars, or folklorists selected by the section. Nominations for future Shuldiner lecturers should be sent to the convener at the e-mail address below.
Past Shuldiner lecturers have been:
2003 Margaret Randall
2006 Tahim Alhaj (concert and lecture)
2007 Cynthia Cohen
2008 Stetson Kennedy
The section annually awards its William Still Citation for lifetime achievement in community cultural work. The award goes to organizations or individuals who have combined traditional arts and culture with a vision for social justice. The award, currently $100 and lifetime honorary membership in the section, goes to an organization in the geographical vicinity of the AFS meeting, so that a representative can meet with folklorists at the conference.
Previous winners of the William Still Citation have been:
1994 James Cameron and America's Black Holocaust Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1996 The Open Hearth Education Project, James Abrams, Executive Director, Johnstown, Pennsylvania (http://museum.research.missouri.edu/mfap/pubs/culttour/a2.htm)
1997 The Esperanza Peace & Justice Center, Graciela I. Sanchez, Executive Director, San Antonio, Texas
1998 Radio KDNA, Granger, Washington
1999 Highlander Research and Education Center, Guy and Candie Carawan, Directors, New Market, Tennessee
2000 Appalshop, Whitesburg, Kentucky
2001 Alaska Native Medical Center Auxiliary, Anchorage, Alaska
2003 Native Seeds/SEARCH, Tucson, Arizona
Nominations are now being solicited for a 2008 awardee in the Kentucky area.
Bibliograhy of Works By and About Still Citation Recipients:
Adams, Frank with Myles Horton. Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, 1975.
Cameron, James. A Time of Terror. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1994.
Carawan, Guy, and Candie Carawan, eds. Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through Its Songs. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.: Sing Out! Publications, 1997.
Carawan, Guy, and Candie Carawan. Voices from the Mountains. New York: Knopf, 1975. Repr. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
Glen, John M. Highlander: No Ordinary School. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988.
Horton, Myles, and Paulo Freire. We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change
Horton, Myles, Herbert Kohl, and Judith Kohl. The Long Haul. New York: Teachers College Press, 1998.
Shuldiner, David P. Aging Political Activists: Personal Narratives from the Old Left. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1995.
---. Folklore, Culture, and Aging: A Research Guide. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997.
---. Of Moses and Marx: Folk Ideology and Folk History in the Jewish Labor Movement. Westport, Connecticut: Bergin & Garvey, 1999.
Still, William. Underground Rail Road Records. Repr. Chicago: Johnson Publishing, 1975.
Members of the PFSJ section may also be interested in the work of the Peace and Justice Studies Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.
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To join this American Folklore Society interest-group section, please visit the AFS membership page of this web site, where you will find both a secure online and a printable, mailable membership form. You need not be a member of the American Folklore Society to join its sections.