Gathering at the Intersections of Folklore and the Environment

The Fellows of the American Folklore Society (AFS), the Diverse Environmentalisms Research Team, and the Climate Interest Group of the Folklore and Science Section will host a webinar titled “Gathering at the Intersections of Folklore and the Environment” 7:00pm – 9:00 pm (EDT), Thursday, September 26, 2024. The webinar is open to scholars and practitioners in folklore and in adjacent fields and organizations throughout the world working at the intersections of expressive culture and the environment. This topic has acquired increased urgency as communities and our world are impacted by climate change and environmental degradation.

The goals of the webinar are to bring people together to share ideas, learn about what others have been and are doing, and strengthen connections among a broad range of individuals and groups. This online gathering offers an opportunity to assess the state of research and practice to date and to identify directions for the future.

In lieu of prepared papers, we encourage participants to briefly introduce their work through a “digital postcard,” discuss their projects and collaborations, and thereby recognize common themes and issues. We therefore invite participants to create a slide that encapsulates their interests. Participants will have the opportunity to identify promising trends and lay the foundation for special issues in folklore publications and other collaborative activities.

These are themes we have initially identified for the webinar:

Climate change and cultural/community resilience
Diverse ontologies, environmentalisms, and worldmaking
Ecological imaginaries and performing environmentalisms
Ecojustice and the Rights of Nature
Environmental colonialism, resistance, and collective action
Emerging ecological communities, design, practices, and perspectives
Folklore of nature
More-than-human/human relations
Narrative ecology
Cultural/Ecological sustainability policy, theory, and action
Traditional and local ecological landscapes, cosmologies, and knowledge
Please join us at the webinar gathering. AFS membership is not required, but participants must register by August 31 to receive the Zoom invitation. To help us prepare for the event, we ask participants to submit a digital postcard in the form of a slide about their work and ideas; a template and instructions will be sent to all registrants.

At the webinar, following introductory remarks, participants will break into facilitated smaller working groups based on themes identified in the digital postcards. We hope to see you in September.

Contact Mary Hufford at hufford.mary@gmail.com with your questions with “AFS Webinar” in the subject line.