Talking Folklore: A Conversation with Leading Scholars of Folk Religion and Belief

Abstract

This forum features a conversation with prominent folklorists who will reflect on their respective careers, and meditate on the past and future of our discipline. The forum contributes to the intellectual history of folklore; it will be recorded, as past forums have been, for the AFS “Collecting Memories” Oral History Project. This year’s forum will focus on folk religion and belief, by looking at the “life of learning” and the choices, chances, and triumphs of participants Diane Goldstein, Jim Griffith, Elaine Lawless, and Leonard Primiano. Pravina Shukla will once again facilitate this exchange about their academic and public work, their fieldwork and festivals, and also their important involvement in our field and in our scholarly society over the past several decades.