AFS 2012 Annual Meeting: The Continuity and Creativity of Culture
A series of cataclysms over the past decade have thrown into high relief both the fragility of culture and also the sometimes surprising, unpredictable resilience of culture. Whether the turn of events is natural or human in origin, any response must come from people, people guided by their experiences and beliefs, by what they have done, by what they think is the right thing to do. As workers in a discipline dedicated to the documentation of continuity, folklorists often have an intimate view of the creativity necessary to preserve the continuity of traditions. Such creativity need not occur only in marked moments but also, as most folklorists know all too well, in the face of everyday life: everywhere people arise to create their reality in careful coordination with others so that work can get done, children raised, meals made, souls fulfilled.
One of our field’s key concepts, tradition involves both conservation and change; the creativity that exists within tradition and shapes change invites closer examination. Communities (and cultural policy) increasingly engage the representation and future of tradition and culture in economic, educational and political terms that are overt and even formalized, all the while informal vernacular creativity often also persists in more intimate settings of family, neighborhood, ethnic, occupational or regional groups. The destruction wrought by hurricanes and oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico have threatened local culture as well as the physical environment. This may mean that New Orleans is a particularly appropriate place for folklorists to address the role of tradition in cultural continuity and change. While destructive events have threatened traditional home places, occupations, and lifestyles along the Gulf Coast, threats to cultural continuity occur in many contexts in many places, giving us the opportunity to discuss a variety of related issues (not limited to the pressures placed upon tradition by such destructive forces).
The organizers of this year’s meeting believe that the larger question of continuity in culture offers many possibilities for examination, not necessarily involving cultural disruption. While we welcome all submissions, including individual submissions on all topics, we particularly invite panels, forums, diamond presentations, and posters that address cultural continuity, why and how it is maintained, how it can be disrupted, how its resilience can offer reassuring stability, even healing, or how its disruption can threaten well-being and long-standing social interactions. Conference presentations might address the very nature of tradition, or the components of tradition, or such facets of creative approaches to tradition as cultural revivals and key performers, or how performances reveal the mechanics of tradition in such a way as to highlight their creativity. Presentations might also deal with how traditions guide people, either in their everyday lives or in adverse situations, how strong or weak tradition is as a force in culture and how creative vernacular responses affect cultural agency and continuity.
The American Folklore Society, the Institute for Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage at Sun Yat-Sen University, and the China Folklore Society invite applications from folklorists in China and the US to participate in the 2013 Forum on Intangible Cultural Heritage (FICH) Professional Exchange Program.
The FICH exchange program will enable 1-2 folklorists from China to spend a residency period of several weeks sometime between March and June 2013 in the United States, and 1-2 folklorists from the United States to spend several weeks in China during that same time. During that time, participants will take part in a variety of activities: for example, visiting folklore programs in universities, in non-profit organizations, and in government; interacting with folklore colleagues from the other country; visiting sites of ethnographic interest; and presenting their own work.
The larger FICH program—supported by grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council—is undertaking this exchange program, and a series of conferences on comparative China-US cultural policy, with the goal of building sustainable long-term relationships between folklorists and folklore organizations in China and the US. (For more information on the FICH program, please visit www.afsnet.org/?page=FICH.) The goal of the exchange program in particular is to identify future leaders of our field in both countries, and to offer them the opportunity to start and build ongoing professional connections that will serve them well as their careers progress. In order to achieve these goals, we will give priority to applications from younger folklorists (though applicants do need to be beyond their student years).
Each professional exchange will be designed to combine professional experiences related to each person’s interests in our field, and those that will introduce her or him to a selection of the major organizations and people in our field in the country they are visiting.
This program is not intended only for China specialists from the US, or for US specialists from China. We welcome applications from folklorists with many professional interests, and will work to connect those we select with colleagues with comparable interests. Some knowledge of the language of the host country is helpful, but is not required.
The program will provide support for all travel expenses (including visa fees, international and domestic travel, accommodations, and meals), for the costs of residency experiences provided by hosts, and for incidental expenses. All participants will provide a written report to AFS on their exchange visit, which will be translated and shared with colleagues in both countries, and will present an oral version of this report at an AFS annual meeting or at an equivalent event in China.
Applications for the exchange program will be reviewed by a committee of representatives from the FICH partner organizations in the applicant’s home country, with consultation provided by FICH partner representatives from the other country.
The criteria for review of applications will include the following:
1. Professional commitment to the field of folklore studies
2. Past and present leadership activities in the field, or the potential for future leadership
3. The likelihood that we will be able to arrange suitable professional experiences at the times that the visit is possible
To apply, please email AFS Executive Director Dr. Timothy Lloyd (at lloyd.100@osu.edu) two PDF files by December 1, 2012:
1. A letter that:
· describes your interest in this program, and in particular your commitment to long-term international engagement
· explains how you meet the criteria listed just above
· outlines your ideas for possible activities for your exchange visit, including information about any folklorists, folklore academic programs, or folklore organizations in the host country with whom you have already developed contact and would like to work with during your stay
· specifies the times between March 1, 2013, and June 30, 2013, when you will be free to take part in the program
2. A resume or CV, with the names and contact information of three people willing to serve as professional references for you
You may submit these PDFs in Chinese or in English.
We will notify all applicants of our decisions by January 7, 2013.
AFS Selects 2012 China-US Exchange Participants
Friday, January 13, 2012 (1 Comments)
Posted by: Tim Lloyd
AFS has just selected five folklorists, two from China and three from the US, to take part in its 2012 China-US Exchange Program.
The China participants are:
Chen Xi, on the staff of the Institute for Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou
Gang Zhu, on the staff of the Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing
The US participants are:
Andrea Kitta, on the faculty of the English Department of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina
Amy Skillman, an independent folklorist of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Sally Van de Water, on the staff of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland
Participants will spend a residency period of several weeks between March and September 2013 in the exchange country. During that time, participants will take part in a variety of activities: for example, visiting folklore programs in universities, in non-profit organizations, and in government; interacting with folklore colleagues from the other country; visiting sites of ethnographic interest; and presenting their own work.
The deadline for applications for the 2013 exchange program will be December 1, 2012. For more information on the program--part of AFS's China-US Forum on Intangible Cultural Heritage Project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation--please visit http://www.afsnet.org/?page=FICH.作者: 恩施土家 时间: 2012-11-1 01:20 标题: 往年交流活动美方记录：
AFS Delegation Meets With China Project PartnersThursday, July 28, 2011 (1 Comments)
Posted by: Timothy Lloyd
A five-member AFS delegation (Kurt Dewhurst, Bill Ivey, Tim Lloyd, Marsha MacDowell, and Juwen Zhang) traveled to China from July 18-25 for planning meetings in four cities with our partners in the China-US Forum on Intangible Cultural Heritage project (FICH).
The FICH project has received major support from the Henry Luce Foundation and additional support from several of the project partners.
The following activities took place:
Discussion of the project’s two 2011-2013 activities with faculty members Kang Baocheng, Song Junhua, Ouyang Guang, Jiang Mingzhi, and Wang-Riese Xiaobing, and staff member/PhD student Chen Xi, all of the Institute of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou:
Four conferences comparing and analyzing ICH and cultural policy in China and the US (to be produced by Sun Yat-Sen University and Vanderbilt University)
Professional development exchanges (to be produced by AFS and Sun Yat-Sen University, along with the China Folklore Society and other project partners),
Discussion of the two activities on which the project will focus in its second, 2013-2015 phase:
Museum activities (to be produced by the Yunnan Nationalities Museum and the Michigan State University Museum) with director Xie Mohua and staff member Zhang Jinghong of the Yunnan Nationalities Museum in Kunming
Undergraduate and graduate education activities (to be produced by the two China universities named below and Willamette University) with folklorists from two of China's PhD-granting folklore institutions: Huang Yonglin, Vice President, and Liu Shouhua, senior faculty member, both of Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan, and Wan Jianzhong, head of the folklore program at Beijing Normal University
A day-long general meeting of the steering committee for the project, which brought together most of the above partner representatives as well as Chao Gejin, Director of the Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and President of the China Folklore Society; folklorist Ye Tao of the Academy, who is general secretary of CFS; and folklorist Zhu Gang, Chao’s assistant at the Academy.
The photo shows the participants in this last-mentioned gathering. L-R: Zhu Gang, Wan Jianzhong, Bill Ivey, Xie Mohua, Tim Lloyd, Zhang Yinghong, Chao Gejin, Chen Xi, Kurt Dewhurst, Marsha MacDowell, Song Junhua, Huang Yonglin, Juwen Zhang. Photo by Juwen Zhang
Folklore and Intangible Culture Heritage in China
Royal D
Juwen Zhang (Willamette University), chair
Cao Yansheng (Beijing Folklore Museum), Fan Jiang (Liaoning University),
Fang Xiao (Beijing Normal University), Huang Luonguong (Yuxi Normal
University), Li Caiping (Beijing Folklore Museum), Zhou Fuyan (Liaoning
University)
Chinese Folklore
Bonnet Carre
Juwen Zhang (Willamette University), chair
1:30 Ke Jia (Cloud Gate Chinese Cultural Holiday Studio), The Continuity and
Creativity of Culture--Analysis of Current Chinese Festivals
2:00 Tongju Diao (Shandong University), Belonged to the Natal family or the
Husband’s Family: a Folklore Approach to the Married Daughters’ Identity
2:30 Nankuaimodege (Xinjiang Normal University), Tuvan People in Three
Countries: Cultural Identity and Nationality
Updated 7/18/12
3:00 Tian Tian (Inner Mongolia Normal University) and Zhaoyuan Tian (East
China Normal University), Oath of Alliance, Fictions and Social Organizations 作者: 瑶族小妹 时间: 2012-11-5 17:26
