November 14, 2014
OSU Folklorists Attend AFS in Santa Fe, New Mexico
On November 5th-8th, OSU Folklorists from various departments attended the 126th Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The conference theme was "Folklore at the Crossroads". Comparative Studies participants included Professors Dorothy Noyes, Katherine Borland, Sabra Weber and Graduate Students Cristina Benedetti, Afsane Rezaei, Puja Batra-Wells, and Amanda Randhawa.
Dorothy Noyes served as discussant on two panels, both sponsored by the Mediterranean Section: "Sabato Rodia's Towers in Watts: Art, Migrations, Development” and “Common Ground, Slippery Meaning: Humor, Liminality, and Emergence in Iran, Turkey, and Armenia.” She also served as PhD student mentor in the Mentoring/Shadow Program
Presentations
Amanda Randhawa, "Meenakshi’s Other Face: Agency in Construction of the Rural Divine in Tamilnadu" in the panel "Folklore and Religion I".
Puja Batra Wells, "Art/Work: Evaluating Artistic Labor and the Manufacture of Fungible Value" in the panel "Thinking through Abundance and Scarcity: Adaptations in Folk Economics". She also served as chair of the panel.
Cristina Benedetti, " Festival Economics: Ludic Labor in Late Capitalism" in the panel "Thinking through Abundance and Scarcity: Adaptions in Folk Economies".
Afsane Rezaei, "Political Humor in Trying Times: The “Thanks Rouhani” Joke Cycle and Its Conflicting Interpretations" in the panel "Common Ground, Slippery Meaning: Humor, Liminality, and Emergence in Iran, Turkey, and Armenia".
Katherine Borland, "From Community Service Learning to Community Action Research: Lessons from the Academic Trenches" in the panel "Folklore and Community Engagement" for which she also served as panel chair. She also served as a facilitator for the AFS Special Event on "World Cafe" sponsered by the AFS Committee on International Issues.
Sabra Weber, "Arab American Family Immigration Sagas" in the panel "Immigrant Oral Narratives".
Photo courtesy of AFS and Daniel Nadelbach
