Please join us in congratulating our newest successful Ph.D. candidate, Dr. Sarah Craycraft, who defended her dissertation yesterday!

As noted by her advisor, Katherine Borland, Sarah's dissertation, Reinventing the Village: Generations, Heritage and Revitalization in Contemporary Bulgaria, was described by her committee members as:

an impressive, wide-ranging synthesis, a very coherent dissertation, and easily a book within two years. The dissertation brings together several bodies of literature and a wealth of ethnographic research to explore the role of young people in cultural transmission, using case studies of Bulgarian village residencies to interrogate a series of intertwined phenomena: the ways that “Children of Post-Socialism” relate to  place, heritage and to earlier generations; the “folklife project” as a complex genre of cultural production; the slippages between help and harm resulting from depoliticized social initiatives; the role of projects in facilitating mutual aid in times of crisis; and the challenges of generating new models for rural revitalization at the grassroots level.

Pictured in this photo with Sarah (second from the left) are her committee members Dorry Noyes, Katherine Borland, and Theodora Dragostinova. Not pictured here is her fourth committee member, Galey Modan, and external reader/Graduate Faculty Representative Leslie Moore, both of whom joined the defense via Zoom.

With gratitude to members of the Department, Sarah shared: "I've had such a wonderful support system through comparative studies and folklore, a brilliant group of fellow graduate students to learn alongside, and a wonderfully supportive committee. A special thanks to Katey for her guidance. She's a mentor who makes folklore such a warm and welcoming network to be part of. I appreciate all the conversations, lessons, and especially tissues you've all offered over the years. Onward to more learning!"

Onward, indeed, Dr. Craycraft!