NASAA Folklorists’ Peer Group Workshop

Abstract

On September 14, 2016, the Folklorists’ Peer Group met before the National Assembly for State Arts Agencies (NASAA) national conference held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In my role as consultant, I attended the Folklorists’ Peer Group Pre-Conference workshop titled, “Where’s My Place in Racial Justice? Reflecting on Personal and Professional Roles in Creating Equity.” Colleagues and friends whom I knew from the American Folklore Society, Marsha MacDowell, Laura Marcus Green, and Amy Kitchener invited me to act as evaluator and reviewer of the Workshop. As a member of the Cultural Diversity Committee of AFS, I accepted the invitation with hopes of adding, in some small way, to the discussion and thereby moving our diversity agenda forward. In this report, I am reporting on the activities at the NASAA Folklorists Peer Group Pre conference workshop; I conclude with some suggestions for future actions that will build on the work done in Grand Rapids. This report focuses on the Workshop held during the first day of the Folklorists Peer Group gathering at NASAA. See Appendix A for the agenda for the first day meeting.