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.
New for 2003! Announcing the annual David Shuldiner Memorial Lecture. 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, the section has decided to inaugurate a series of annual 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. The lecturer will be an activist, community scholar, or folklorist to be selected by the section. Nominees for this year's lecturer should be sent to the convener at the e-mail address below.
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 are:
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 (www.appalshop.org)
2001 Alaska Native Medical Center Auxiliary, Anchorage, Alaska (www.idesignet.com/Magazine/J_F’98/install_alaska.html)
Nominations are now being solicited for a 2003 awardee in the New Mexico 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. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
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 Studies Association. The Peace Studies Association can also be contacted directly at psa@earlham.edu.
We are building this page--collectively, of course--so your input and comments are welcome! You can e-mail the section at pfsj_afs@yahoo.com.
Note to section members: You should send your e-mail address if you would like to receive news by e-mail. In the spirit of inclusiveness and democracy, the section will not send out news via e-mail without also sending out the same paper-mail to our brothers and sisters who don't have e-mail access.
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.