Folklore Studies NEWSLETTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON PROGRAM Spring 2009

UO Folklore Program Widely Represented at 2008–9 Conferences

rom the American Folklore WE’RE ON THE WEB! FSociety national conference to www.uoregon.edu/~flr/ the Western States Folklore Society NEWSLETTER EDITOR regional meetings and international Al Bersch events, University of Oregon Folklore ASSOCIATE EDITOR Program faculty members and students Daniel Wojcik continue to demonstrate significant CONTRIBUTORS involvement and influence on the Doug Blandy, Beth Dehn, discipline of folklore studies, earning John Fenn, Nathan notable honors and awards for their Georgitis, Joseph O’Connell presentations at numerous academic ABOUT OUR meetings. In October, the UO Folklore PROGRAM Program had a strong presence at the The University of Oregon’s Folklore Program is one American Folklore Society Conference of the nation’s most in Louisville, Kentucky (see full list Folklore archive enthusiasts at the 2008 American Folklore Society progressive centers for of presentations on page 3). This year, meeting, Louisville, Kentucky; back row, from left to right, Nathan folklore studies. The Georgitis, Erin O’Meara, John Fenn, Andy Kolovos, Daniel Wojcik; Professor Sharon Sherman was elected interdisciplinary nature front row, Ziying You, James Fox, and Casey Schmitt. of the program allows as a fellow of the American Folklore independent-minded Society (AFS), an honorary body of folklorists may contribute to the Ethnographic Archives students to design their whose election to the fellows signifies their Initiative, a larger national discussion led own programs according contributions to the field. by AFS. Fenn was joined on the panel by to their interests. Each year, students and faculty colleagues from the UO Libraries, including Tying into the “Commons and members present at Commonwealth” theme for this year’s James Fox, head of special collections, Erin conferences nationwide, conference, faculty members and students O’Meara, electronic records archivist, and publish articles, and from the University of Oregon led a lively Nathan Georgitis, metadata librarian. The produce award-winning films. The program is also discussion on the subject of “ethnographic Vermont Folklife Center’s Andy Kolovos, home to the Randall V. archives in the era of the electronic who consulted on the project, also served as Mills Archive of Northwest commonwealth.” Folklore Program faculty a panelist. Others in attendence from the UO Folklore, which houses member John Fenn chaired the session, which included Daniel Wojcik, former UO archivists nearly 20,000 documents and films. explored issues related to the management Joe O’Connell, Casey Schmitt, and Ziying of cultural heritage collections in the digital You, as well as representatives from folklore FOLKLORE PROGRAM 1287 University of Oregon domain. The Folklore Program’s collaboration archives across the United States. Eugene OR 97403-1287 with the University of Oregon Libraries on In April, graduate student Summer Pennell, the Randall V. Mills Archive of Northwest former student Jen Furl, and folklore faculty Program Secretary Cathy O’Grady Folklore provided a case study for the forum members Doug Blandy, John Fenn, and Lisa (541) 346-3911 discussion. In this project, the Folklore Gilman attended the annual meeting of the [email protected] Program will replace the Mills Archive card Association of Western States Folklorists, catalogs with the Archivists’ Toolkit data held this year at Fort Worden State Park in management system and serve as an online Townsend, Washington. Blandy was invited catalog for book collections and student to colead “Networking with Community folklore fieldwork projects. In addition, the Arts Roundtable” with Bill Cleveland, the database will allow the archive to export director of the Center for the Study of Art and finding aids for collections to the UO Libraries databases. The Mills Archive project Continued on page 3 Notes from Program Director Daniel Wojcik his past year has been an important Ttime of growth and transformation for “I am continually impressed by the University of Oregon Folklore Program, the originality of our students’ despite difficult economic conditions work, the significance of their and ensuing budget challenges. Student enrollment and interest in UO folklore final projects, and their overall studies are at an all-time high, as the enthusiasm and creativity.” interdisciplinary nature and relevance of —Daniel Wojcik our program continues to attract innovative, serious students who think beyond Daniel Wojcik disciplinary boundaries. the program’s growth, continuing the work The 2008–9 academic year was busy and of previous directors Barre Toelken and productive, and this newsletter documents Sharon Sherman. During the past three some of the many accomplishments and years, we have expanded and formalized accolades that our faculty, students, and course offerings, and doubled the number alumni have attained. This past year, faculty of participating faculty members, resulting members have published a number of in collaborative efforts across campus to important works, received various awards, build the program and support our graduate and presented papers at conferences students. We have enhanced our curriculum, nationally and internationally. Although these created a new webpage, and have updated are described in detail in the following pages, and renovated the Mills Archive. We also a few of the highlights include the following: have increased the visibility and outreach of Professor Sharon Sherman being elected a the Folklore Program by partnering with local fellow of the American Folklore Society; communities and organizing numerous public Associate Professor Lisa Gilman’s tenure in events, such as our various film and speaker the Department of English; and folklorist John series, oral history and video documentations Fenn’s recent hire as an assistant professor of local culture, guest lectures, and assorted in the Arts and Administration Program. exhibits and performances. Another important and ongoing activity is These efforts, along with the success of our our continued collaboration with the UO graduates who hold positions in academia, Libraries’ University Archives and Special museum work, video production, and Collections to enhance the visibility and public folklore, have helped with student accessibility of the holdings of the Randall V. recruitment. We currently have twenty-one Mills Archive of Northwest Folklore. graduate students including Ph.D. students Our students also have accomplished who specialize in folklore. Twelve students much in terms of presentations, publications, have graduated from our program this awards, and creative work. They have year, and eleven incoming students will continued the tradition of the “Archive join us in the fall term of 2009—our largest Hour” series and organized various public class of graduates and the largest class of events and presentations. With the students’ first-year graduate students ever. Fourteen enthusiasm and supportive efforts, our “Track undergraduate students are now pursuing the Town Traditions” events, held in conjunction certificate in folklore, also the largest number with the 2008 Olympic Team Trials in ever. The increase in students interested in Eugene, were filled to capacity and received folklore studies and the increased financial rave reviews as well as local and national support they receive has been the most media coverage. Additional updates about the fulfilling part of my term as director. I am successes of our alumni and students, as well continually impressed by the originality of as our upcoming events, may be found on our our students’ work, the significance of their webpage: www.uoregon.edu/~flr. Feel free to final projects, and their overall enthusiasm contact us with any news, and please visit us and creativity. It has been rewarding to be a if you are in town. part of this exciting time for the UO Folklore As I step down as director of the Folklore Program, and I thank all of you who have Program, I am gratified to have assisted in supported and strengthened our program.

2 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM AMERICAN FOLKLORE WESTERN STATES FOLKLORE SOCIETY CONFERENCE SOCIETY CONFERENCE FORUM: Ethnographic Archives in the Era PAPER PRESENTATIONS of the Electronic Commonwealth (sponsored “An American Soldier’s iPod: Layers of Identity by the Archives and Libraries Section, American and Situated Listening in Iraq” (Lisa Gilman, UO Folklore Society). Chair: John Fenn (UO folklore), folklore) James Fox (UO folklore affiliate), Nathan Georgitis “Treating the Family Naturally: Pitfalls of (UO folklore), Andy Kolovos (Vermont Folklife Vernacular Authority in Digital Enclaves” (Robert Center), Erin O’Meara (University Archives and Glenn Howard, University of Wisconsin, UO Special Collections) folklore alum) PANEL: Rituals of Mourning: “‘How Will I Ever Go to Confession if I Can’t Memorialization, Self, and Society Make My Avatar Stop Dancing?’ Logging into the Sacred through Second Life” (Kate Ristau, UO “Memorialization as Protest in the Bike folklore alum) Movement” (Robert Dobler, UO folklore) “Folk Belief, Ritual, and Runners’ Traditions at the “Pre’s Rock: Ritual and Runners’ Traditions at the Roadside Shrine for Steve Prefontaine” (Daniel Roadside Memorial for Steve Prefontaine (Daniel Wojcik, UO folklore) Wojcik, UO folklore) MEDIA SESSION: Making Music, Building Bridges (Elaine Vradenburgh, UO folklore alum) Conferences PANEL: Meeting on the Intellectual Continued from page 1 Commons: Papers in Honor of Michael Community in Bainbridge Island, Washington. Owen Jones Conference attendees also enjoyed a field trip “Analyzing Issues of Intangible Cultural Heritage to the Longshoremen’s Hall in Tacoma, where in China” (Sharon Sherman, UO folklore) they learned about historic paintings and the PANEL: Rediscovering Music union’s history. Later in April, Assistant (soon Associate) Professor Lisa Gilman, Associate “‘Playing This Supposedly Long-Dead Music’: Professor Daniel Wojcik, and folklore alum The British Folk-Song Repertoire and Style of Kate Ristau traveled to the Otis College of Alasdair Roberts” (Joseph O’Connell, UO folklore) Art and Design in Los Angeles to present PANEL: Archiving and Digital Education papers at the Western States Folklore Society’s “Dos and Don’ts of Going Digital” (Alysia D. annual conference, where they met up with McLain, UO folklore alum) previous alumni Moriah Hart and Robert Glenn Howard (see titles of presentations on PANEL: Vernacular and Outside Art this page). In June, folklore graduate student “Punk Gig Fliers as Urban Folk Art” (David A. Emily West Afanador attended the Association Ensminger, UO folklore) for the Study of Literature and Environment conference, and presented a paper titled “Girls PANEL: Heroes Gone Wild: Female Adventuring on African “The McCandless Phenomenon: In Pursuit of the Rivers,” which discussed British women Magic Bus” (Casey Schmitt, UO folklore alum) adventurers (Rose in The African Queen and PANEL: Virtual Communities: Internet and Mary Kingsley’s self-depictions in Travels in Identity West Africa). Plans are under way for a strong contingent “Aggregate Intentionality on the Vernacular of UO folklorists to attend the annual meeting Web: The Case of ‘The Homosexual Extremist’s of the American Folklore Society in Boise, Catholic Space’” (Robert Glenn Howard, Idaho, in October 2009, as well as the Western University of Wisconsin, UO folklore alum) States Folklore Society conference to be held WORKSHOP: Professional Development at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, Workshop: Introduction to Digital Audio in April 2010. For more information about Field Recording (sponsored by the Archives upcoming conferences as well as faculty and and Libraries Section, American Folklore Society), student participation at various events, please co-led by John Fenn (UO folklore) visit the Folklore Program website at www.uoregon.edu/~flr.

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 3 Pat Tyson and Paul Geis, Nike pioneer Geoff Folklore Program Celebrates Hollister, and Fire on the Track executive producer Scott Chambers, all of whom added Eugene’s Track Town Traditions poignant personal anecdotes and moments of humor to the Prefontaine film event. The “Track Town Traditions” series was attended by more than eight hundred track enthusiasts and others interested in local culture, and supported by graduate students enrolled in the Folklore Program. Students interacted with community attendees, filmed the events, and met many local running greats. Wojcik and his students hope to continue documenting Track Town traditions and to conduct interviews and partner with members of the local running community to record the forgotten stories, important oral histories, and emergent running traditions of Eugene. A special fieldwork project carried out during the Olympic Team Trials involved recording interviews with visitors to Pre’s Rock, a roadside memorial in the Hendricks Park region of Eugene, where Steve Prefontaine died in a car crash. Out-of-town visitors and Olympic hopefuls shared stories Participants from the ot every academic discipline studies the and anecdotes about the meaning Prefontaine panel discussion on the Ntraditions of short shorts, the marathon, had in their lives and their emotional reactions and lore of Steve at the memorial site. Folklore graduate student Prefontaine (back row, runner’s high, fartlek workouts, the beer from left to right): Paul mile, naked relays, hash house harriers, and Ziying You, from China, found the interviews Geis, Linda Prefontaine, the legend of Prefontaine. But the Folklore she conducted to be very moving, stating, “I Pat Tyson, Geoff Hollister, now know why Prefontaine is important in Daniel Wojcik, and (front Program presented students and running row) graduate student enthusiasts alike the opportunity to examine both history and people’s thoughts. He’s still runners Beth Dehn and local running lore this past summer. June alive in many people’s minds and hearts. Kelley Totten. 2008 marked the Olympic Team Trials for His legacy is powerful and inspiring.” For track and field in Eugene, and Daniel Wojcik, more information and to view the rough-cut director of the Folklore Program, organized preliminary film from this ongoing project, a series of guest lectures, films, and panel visit cascade.uoregon.edu/fall2008/online- discussions titled “Track Town Traditions and extras/pres-rock-pilgrimage. If you would like the Culture of Running,” held in conjunction to help support the completion of this project, with his University of Oregon summer course please contact Daniel Wojcik. of the same name. The “Track Town Traditions” event series explored distance running, track and field, and the Olympic Games. Panel discussions included talks by famous local Roscoe Divine, Jim Hill, Kathy Hayes Herrmann, Tom Heinonen, Joe Henderson, Mike Manley, Cathie Twomey Bellamy, Wade Bell, and Kenny Moore. Featured films that were introduced and analyzed from an academic perspective included Olympia, Part I: Festival of the Nations, and Tokyo Olympiad. The screening of the film Fire on the Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story before a standing- Kent Hoffmeyer, one of the thousands of runners who room-only crowd was followed by a discussion visited Pre’s Rock during the 2008 Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, says a prayer for Steve Prefontaine at the with Linda Prefontaine, former UO runners roadside shrine.

4 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM ChinaVine Project Continues with Art Exhibit and Travel to Guizhou Province

pening at the Hearth Gallery on the OChinese New Year in 2009, Expressions of China exhibited thirty selected works from students’ travels through the rural villages of Shandong Province and the cities of Jinan, Beijing, and Shanghai in 2008. The exhibit featured photographs and symbolic objects, and is an extension of ChinaVine, an interactive research effort aimed at Left: Professor Doug teaching English-speaking audiences about Blandy and friends on a recent trip to Guizhou longstanding Chinese customs and traditional Province, China. art through modern technology. On its web site, ChinaVine.org, research team members During the past two years, ChinaVine have placed text, photographs and streaming research teams, made up of students and video of Chinese folk art and village life. The professors, have traveled to China four project is a collaboration between faculty times. On a recent trip to Guizhou province members and students from the University in March 2009, Professor Doug Blandy and of Oregon and those at the University of arts management graduate student Myra Central Florida in the U.S., along with two Tam attended an annual Mountain Ramp universities in China, Shandong University festival, which featured a mix of folk dance of Art and Design, and Beijing Normal and modern Chinese pop culture, with University. approximately 20,000 people in attendance.

Recent Student Awards

Joseph O’Connell received an award for Best Graduate Paper from the Public and Private Student Conference at Indiana University for his paper “Taping Demos Politics of Participation in a Hoosier Home Recording Community.” Summer Pennell was awarded the Bruce Abrams Graduate Award in LGBT studies Xueyuan Hou was awarded the Alma Johnson Graduate Folklore from the Department of Women’s and Gender Award. Studies for her project “Pinang and Ayu: A Love Story.” Kelley Totten received the Bea Roeder Scholarship from the Association of Western States Folklorists. She was also awarded a On the corner of Thirteenth Avenue and Willamette Graduate Student Research Grant from the Street in Eugene, Oregon, a ghost bike memorial was Center for the Study of Women in Society. created in honor of David Minor, who died in an accident last year; the memorial is discussed in folklore student Ziying You was awarded the T. Y. Yeh Robert Dobler’s article on subject. Award for Student Scholarship in Asian and Asian American Folklore from the American Robert Dobler was awarded the Warren E. Folklore Society for her paper “The Political Roberts Graduate Student Paper Award from and Ideological Use of Folklore in Modern the American Folklore Society for his paper China.” She also received a Research Award “Memorialization and Protest in the Ghost from the UO Graduate School. Bike Movement.”

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 5 Yearly Awards and Support of Student Work In 2001, Susan Fagan and her husband, Tom Fagan, established the Kate Martin Undergraduate Folklore Award, given for the best archival fieldwork project by an undergraduate in a folklore class, and the Alma Joseph O’Connell, recipient of the Alma Johnson Johnson Graduate Folklore Award for Graduate Folklore Award, performs award-winning music under his band name, Elephant Micah. the best project completed by a graduate student in an English or folklore graduate course. The annual awards are Spotlight on named for Susan’s grandmothers, who were, as she realized once she began the Creative Student study of folklore, the original spark for her lifelong interest in this field. Projects Because of the generosity of donors At the exhibition “A Set of Directions for like Susan and Tom Fagan, the Folklore Making Something” at Grotto Gallerie—an Program is able to support and award artist-run space with a constantly changing outstanding student research. This location (this time in the basement of a year, folklore student Joseph O’Connell bookstore in Brooklyn, New York)—Joseph and Asian Studies student Xueyuan O’Connell organized an audio installation Hou were awarded the Alma Johnson featuring self-interviews and home recordings Graduate Folklore Award. Hou was by the music collective Rowntree Records. recognized for her video Mahjong: Building the Great Wall at the Table. O’Connell was honored for his paper “Playing This Supposedly Long-Dead Music: The British Folk-Song Repertoire and Style of Alasdair Roberts.” Mandy Lindgren received the Kate Martin Undergraduate Folklore Award in recognition of her paper “Take That Shirt off! Let Me See! Bodybuilding as an Expression of Gender, Sexuality, and Hegemonic Resistance.”

A packed audience attended the performance of “Pinang and Ayu: A Love Story.” Summer Pennell was the dalang (puppeteer) and scriptwriter, with musical arrangement by Qehn Jennings, musical director of Gamelan Sari Pandhawa. The music included traditional Javanese pieces, American tunes, and original compositions by Qehn.

For Summer Pennell’s thesis project, she adapted and performed “Pinang and Ayu: A Love Story,” an original wayang Right: UO folklore kulit (Indonesian shadow-puppet theater) alumni Kate Ristau and Moriah Hart, enjoying performance by Eugene’s Gamelan Sari themselves at the Pandhawa. Wayang kulit is a traditional Western States Folklore and beloved art form in Indonesia, and still Society conference in Los Angeles, April 2009. attracts large audiences today. An Indonesian

6 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM orchestra, called a gamelan, provides musical accompaniment for the show. Adapted from Participating a Javanese folktale, this production added a new twist: a lesbian storyline. Themes Faculty Members of sexuality, feminism, and socio-political Ina Asim, history oppression are explored through a humorous Martha Bayless, English plot. Carl Bybee, journalism and communication Ziying You’s film Why Are We Cooking? Edwin L. Coleman II, English Chinese Foodways in America participated Matthew Dennis, history in the 2009 Open Lens Short Film Festival James Fox, Special Collections and at the Downtown Initiative for the Visual University Archives Arts (DIVA) in Eugene. Open Lens is DIVA’s Alisa Freedman, East Asian languages and major winter celebration that attracts patrons literatures to see the work of emerging regional film Marion Sherman Goldman, sociology artists, attend seminars, and meet with guest filmmakers. You’s film featured several local Lori Hager, arts and administration Chinese chefs, who discussed the changing Kingston Heath, historic preservation dynamics of Chinese foodways in modern Kenneth I. Helphand, landscape architecture society. Her thesis similarly focuses on Shari M. Huhndorf, English the dynamics, variations, and functions Lamia Karim, anthropology of Chinese foodways in the United States, Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, English exploring those that have continued through time and across space and that have been Brian Klopotek, anthropology transformed by the processes of transnational Mark Levy, music and transcultural communication and Kenneth Liberman, sociology interaction. David Luebke, history Al Bersch, with photographer-educator Michael Majdic, Media Services Leslie Grant, took part in a group show Gabriela Martinez, journalism and titled The Wild So Close at the Or Gallery, communication an artist-run space in Vancouver, British Anne Dhu McLucas, music Columbia. The exhibition brought together Debra Merskin, journalism and varying photographic and video works to communication investigate concepts of leisure environments Camilla H. Mortensen, German and and resources, and included materials from Scandinavian The Forestry Project, Bersch and Grant’s participatory documentary about logging and Julianne Newton, journalism and forestry in southeastern B.C. communication Jeffrey Ostler, history Dorothee Ostmeier, German and Scandinavian Priscilla Ovalle, English Elizabeth Peterson, UO Libraries Donald Peting, architecture Ellen Rees, German and Scandinavian Leland M. Roth, art history Janice Rutherford, arts and administration Gordon Sayre, English Analisa Taylor, Romance languages Kartz Ucci, art Elizabeth Wheeler, English

A photograph by retired logger Walt Fanning, from The Stephanie Wood, Center for the Study of Forestry Project, an exhibit organized by Al Bersch and Women in Society Leslie Grant at the Or Gallery in Vancouver, British Stephen Wooten, international studies Columbia.

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 7 Folklore Program Adds New Faculty Member olklorist John Fenn recently accepted a tenure-line faculty position as an assistant professor Fat the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, beginning fall 2009. One of his primary responsibilities in the program will be to launch and oversee the newest area of concentration within the master’s degree: media management. Holding a Ph.D. in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University (2004), Fenn has conducted field research on popular music and youth identity (Malawi); folks arts and material culture (southern Indiana, the Pacific Northwest); and the cultural history of African American communities in Eugene-Springfield. He has also explored the intellectual history of public sector ethnomusicology, primarily via the commercial recordings released on Folkways by Laura Boulton. His teaching includes ethnomusicology theory and methods, popular music in the African diaspora, public folklore, and media studies. John Fenn’s Report on Community, Culture, and the Past in Eugene, Oregon

fter moving to Eugene in 2005, I heard Abrief mention of a historic African “I wanted students taking the American neighborhood-community that course to engage in hands-on was located somewhere north of campus. collaborative work related to cultural That no one could tell me much about this heritage and community: planning seemingly significant element of local cultural and conducting fieldwork, navigating John Fenn history was not surprising given the ways divergent interests among and institutional prejudice often dictates what we know about a place via the “official” and between community groups, and written record. Early in winter term of 2008, I satisfying expectations of multiple met Lyllye Parker, an adviser in the Office of constituencies for a project.” Multicultural Academic Success (OMAS) on —John Fenn campus, a lifelong resident of Eugene, and a daughter of the Reynolds family—a “pioneer” family in the African American community interests among and between community that had lived in what they called the Ferry groups, and satisfying expectations of Street Bridge area. She shared stories with multiple constituencies for a project. The me about her family and childhood during course received support from the UO our first meeting, and her stories pushed me Libraries Special Collections and University to want to know more. Personal interest in Archives, who agreed to catalog and house this issue and my goals as a folklorist vested oral history materials generated through in public sector work aligned with the need the course and who provided me with a for public acknowledgement of this “hidden” yearlong graduate student research fellow history. who has been instrumental in gathering and During the fall term of 2008, I taught a processing materials. course through the Arts and Administration The project outgrew the ten-week time Program that was dedicated to gathering span of a course, and the students who took an oral history of the African American the course conducted eight interviews and community that called the Alton Baker Park gathered archival research in a few short area of Eugene home from the mid-1940s weeks, but much was left undone. With the until a forced relocation in 1949. I wanted help of a student in the class, I applied for students taking the course to engage in hands- money that would support ongoing fieldwork on collaborative work related to cultural for the project, and that proposal has recently heritage and community: planning and been funded. I anticipate overseeing the conducting fieldwork, navigating divergent fieldwork into the summer and next fall.

8 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM essay “Heroines Gritty and Tender, Printed Folklore and Oral, Late-Breaking and Traditional: Revisiting the Anglo-American Female Program Faculty Warrior” (forthcoming in Ballads and Broadsides in Britain, 1500–1800, Anita DOUG BLANDY (ARTS AND Guerrini and Patricia Fumerton, eds.) revisits ADMINISTRATION, FOLKLORE) the topic of her first book, Warrior Women Doug Blandy is currently the associate and Popular Balladry, 1650–1850 and her dean of academic affairs for the School of CD “Dangerous Examples: Fighting and Architecture and Allied Arts, a professor Sailing Women in Song” (cdbaby.com) by and program director in the Arts and examining gender and sexuality in folk songs, Administration Program, and the director of literature, and history. During the summer Lisa Gilman’s book the Institute for Community Arts Studies at of 2009, Dugaw will conduct research in The Dance of Politics: the University of Oregon. As director of the Mexico on the spiritual and political aspects Gender, Performance, institute, he inaugurated the online advisory and Democratization in of the culture of the baroque era. In 2008–9, Malawi, was published CultureWork. In addition, he teaches and Professor Dugaw was honored with the by Temple University advises students at both the graduate and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Press. The book looks undergraduate level who have an interest at how gender and Education and Support Services Award from class intersect in Malawi in arts administration and community arts. the University of Oregon. through women’s roles His research attends to community arts, as political praise civil society, program accessibility, and art LISA GILMAN (ENGLISH, FOLKLORE) performers. education. He provides service to professional Lisa Gilman received organizations internationally, nationally, her Ph.D. in folklore with a regionally, and locally. Doug’s most current minor in African studies from research is a collaboration with scholars Indiana University in 2001. in China and the United States to interpret She has held appointments China’s cultural heritage for English speaking at the University of Toledo audiences. This project can be found at and Texas A&M University in ChinaVine.org. addition to her current position in the Folklore Program and English department at the University of Oregon (2005– present). Gilman is interested in exploring relationships between expressive forms and socio-political issues. She is the author of The Dance of Politics: Gender, Performance, and Democratization in Lisa Gilman Malawi (Temple University Press, 2009) and a number of articles engaging various aspects of women’s political performances in Malawi. The most recent is “Complex Genres, Intertextuality, and the Analysis of Performance” in the Journal of American Professor Dianne Dugaw and folklore student Summer Folklore 122 (2009). Her current research Pennell at the UO Lavender Graduation ceremony. examines the musical listening of American troops when deployed to the war in Iraq DIANNE DUGAW (ENGLISH, FOLKLORE) and explores relationships between musical Dianne Dugaw has presented lectures practices, experience, identity, and memory. and performances at colleges, libraries, She teaches courses in folklore about identity, conferences, and festivals throughout the politics, gender, sexuality, and African U.S. and Canada. Current work has focused studies. Beginning in summer 2009, Gilman on Anglo-American ballads and folk songs. will be the new director of the Folklore Her definitive discussion of the term Program at the University of Oregon. “ballad” will appear in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Her

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 9 PHILIP SCHER (ANTHROPOLOGY, fellows signifies their contributions to the FOLKLORE) field. She was also nominated for president Philip W. Scher has been at the University of the society. Professor Sherman presented of Oregon since 2002. His area of focus is the papers at the Western States Folklore Society Caribbean, with primary research interests meeting in Davis, California, and the American in the politics of heritage and cultural Folklore Society meeting in Louisville. Her identity, popular and public culture, folklore, publications for the past year include “Who cultural studies, and political economy. His Owns Culture and Who Decides? Ethics, publications include two edited volumes: Film Methodology, and Intangible Cultural Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Heritage Protection,” Western Folklore 67: Culture and Representation from Blackwell 2–3 (2008) and “Film and Women’s Folklore,” Publishers (2008) and Trinidad Carnival: The Encyclopedia of Women’s Folklore and Cultural Politics of a Transnational Festival Folklife. She and Mikel Koven are in the from Indiana University Press (2007). Other planning stages for a new text on film and publications include his book Carnival and folklore. As the result of a Center for the the Formation of a Caribbean Transnation Study of Women in Society Research Grant (University Press of Florida, 2003) and for “Whatever Happened to Zulay,” a video “Copyright Heritage: Preservation, Carnival, project about Zulay Sarabino, an Otavaleña and the State in Trinidad” (Anthropological woman in Ecuador, Sherman was able to Quarterly, Summer 2002). His latest work bring Zulay and her daughter, Paolita, to concerns the implications for anthropology Eugene to continue their collaborative work of the copyright and legal protection of on the project. The video addresses issues of expressive culture and folklore as well as a transnationalism, reflexivity, globalization, and study of UNESCO World Heritage sites in gender. Moreover, it analyzes what happens to the Caribbean. He is a 2008–9 recipient of a peoples’ lives when a film is made about them. Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and a John Professor Sherman also continues to serve Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation on the board of Folkstreams.net, a website Fellowship. devoted to streaming folklore films. SHARON SHERMAN (ENGLISH, FOLKLORE) CAROL SILVERMAN (ANTHROPOLOGY, Sharon R. Sherman is a professor of FOLKLORE) English and former director of the Folklore Carol Silverman, professor of cultural Program at the University of Oregon, anthropology and folklore at the University where she continues to teach part-time. of Oregon and head of the Department Her current courses are Film and Folklore, of Anthropology, had two publications Video Fieldwork, and Magic, Myth, and appearing in 2008 related to her work on Religion. She has produced more than a Balkan culture and politics: “Fieldwork dozen films and videos, all of which address in Bulgaria” in Studying Peoples in the the interconnection between tradition and People’s Democracies II; Socialist Era the creative process. During the past year, Anthropology in South-East , Vintila Professor Sherman was elected a fellow of the Miailescu, Ilia Iliev, and Slobodan Naumovic, American Folklore Society. The fellows of the eds. (Berlin: Lit Verlag) and “Transnational American Folklore Society are an honorary Cocek: Gender and the Politics of Balkan body of folklorists, whose election to the Romani Dance,” in Balkan Dance: Essays on Characteristics, Performance, and Teaching, Anthony Shay, ed. (McFarland Press). Her book Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora is in press with Oxford University Press; it will have an extensive website containing video and audio examples and photographs. She presented papers this year at the annual conferences of the American Anthropological Association, the Right: Professors Sharon Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Gypsy Sherman and Carol Lore Society, and at an invited conference Silverman at the Folklore Program picnic, October at the University of Illinois on interpreting 2008.

10 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM Spotlight Far left: Professor Carol on Affiliated Silverman’s book Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Faculty Diaspora is currently in press. Taken by Silverman s the UO Folklore Program expands, in 1990, this photograph Awe are constantly gaining new partners shows a groom’s female and affiliates from other campus departments relatives dancing with a tray of henna as part who find folklore studies to be in direct and of the five-day wedding pertinent relationship to their own fields ceremony of Muslim and research. Through association with the Macedonian Roma. emotions in Slavic cultures. She also received Folklore Program, these individuals gain a UO Summer Research Award for a project on support for offering courses and engaging Romani music in film, and a Research Award inquiries that might otherwise be overlooked from the Center for the Study of Women in while greatly broadening and enriching the Society for a project on education, sexuality, theoretical and academic perspectives and and gender among Macedonian Romani opportunities available to folklore students. migrants to New York City. While this year we turn the spotlight on a small sampling of these individuals in DANIEL WOJCIK (ENGLISH, FOLKLORE) recognition of their important contributions Daniel Wojcik continues to teach folklore to the Folklore Program in 2008–9, we will courses in the areas of belief studies, feature different faculty members each year subcultures, new religions, and vernacular in forthcoming issues. Full biographical art. His article “Spirits, Apparitions, and and research information for other affiliated Traditions of Supernatural Photography” faculty members may be found online at was published in Visual Resources: An uoregon.edu/~flr/faculty/fac.htm. International Journal of Documentation in a special issue titled “Visualizing the Invisible: Visionary Technologies in Religious and Cultural Contexts” (2009). His essays “Bohemianism,” “Native American Church,” and “Peoples Temple (Jonestown)” appeared in American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History (2009). Another article, “Avertive Apocalypticism: Using Spiritual Techniques to Avert Worldly Catastrophe,” is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Millennialism, the definitive volume on millennial movements. Wojcik’s film project, Pre’s Rock: Legacy and Lore at the Roadside Shrine for Steve Kingston Heath Prefontaine, was highlighted in Cascade Magazine, Fall 2008 (cascade.uoregon.edu/ KINGSTON HEATH (HISTORIC fall2008/online-extras/pres-rock-pilgrimage). PRESERVATION) He presented papers at the annual meetings Kingston Heath is a professor and of the American Folklore Society and the director of the graduate program in historic Western States Folklore Society, and will preservation. He earned a M.A. in art history deliver the Meertens Ethnology Lecture at from the University of Chicago and an the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam this M.A. and a Ph.D. in American studies from summer. Throughout 2010, Wojcik will Brown University. Previous work experience be on sabbatical and completing research includes state architectural historian for the and publications on self-taught visionary Montana State Historic Preservation Office, artists, and contemporary religious and supervisor of historical interpretation at environmentalist apocalyptic beliefs.

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 11 Mystic Seaport, and professor of architectural pursuing advanced graduate work in Jungian history and historic preservation at Montana depth psychology. State University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has served two terms as a member of the board of directors of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Areas of specialization include vernacular architecture of the American West, New workers’ housing, American building construction history, and vernacular architecture theory. He is the author of The Patina of Place: The Cultural Weathering of a New England Industrial Landscape and Vernacular Architecture and Regional Design: Cultural Process and Environmental Response. He is also the founder and director of the Croatia Field School, an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the traditional Dorothee Ostmeier stone environments of Croatia’s Central Dalmatian Coast. Professor Heath teaches DOROTHEE OSTMEIER (GERMAN AND Building Construction History, Identifying SCANDINAVIAN) and Interpreting Vernacular Settings, and An associate professor of German and a Preservation Theory. participating faculty member of comparative MARK LEVY (MUSIC) literature, Dorothee Ostmeier’s research and Mark Levy is an instructor of teaching focuses on German literature and ethnomusicology at the UO School of Music culture of the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. International reviews recognize Gaby Maldonado sells hand- and Dance, where he has been teaching knit ponchos to a tourist from courses in world music since 1991. He also Ostmeier’s study on the poet Nelly Sachs her family’s weaving studio in coordinates an ongoing series of public as one of the few works that analyze Sachs’ Hualhuas, Peru. Folklore student cryptic dramatic writings, which she Kelley Totten spent three months lecture-demonstrations and concerts on learning from Gaby and her family, campus related to music traditions of the composed after escaping Nazi persecution as well as other craftswomen in world. He is currently the curator for an in 1941. Ostmeier’s courses on -tale the region, about handicrafts and traditions, fantasy, and the uncanny tackle tourism—the subject of Kelley’s exhibit of musical instruments from many M.A. thesis. cultures, which opened at the UO Museum the moves from utopian to antiutopian of Natural and Cultural History in June. Levy tales and link these to questions of social has a long-term interest in folk music and marginalization, gender imbalance, imaginary dance of the Balkans, and is a performer on a friends, and schizophrenic characters. This variety of folk instruments from that region. teaching has inspired two of her recent He has wide-ranging interests in many other essays that explore postmodern revisions world music traditions, particularly the of conventional concepts of fairy-tale classical music of North and South India, and “magic” and “wonder,” “Magic Realities gamelan music of Java and Bali. Reconsidered: Ever After” (to be published by Mosaic) and “Zwischenwelten der DEBRA MERSKIN (JOURNALISM AND Phantasie”(Internet journal Paraplui, 2008). COMMUNICATION) This year Ostmeier will complete her current Associate Professor Debra Merskin’s book on gender constructs in poetic dialogues research addresses issues of representational of the twentieth century. She has served on ethics in visual and verbal discourse in the advisory board of the Oregon Humanities mass media with an emphasis on racial and Center, on the Arts and Sciences Curriculum gender stereotyping. In addition, her interests Committee, and as an adviser for the College include the effects of media and popular of Arts and Sciences. She has initiated and culture representations of the natural world coorganized the German internship program including humans and other animals. She and manifold activities of the Healing Arts is currently completing a book about the Research Interest Group at the Center for the social, psychological, and cultural context Study of Women in Society. for stereotyping in American mass media and

12 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 2008–9 Graduate Students AL BERSCH is working on a participatory art project with Oregon Commercial Fishers in collaboration with artists Leslie Grant and Nina Pessin-Whedbee. He is interested in vernacular photographs and personal maps, in terms of how these documentary materials express multiple meanings through everyday use. He recently gave a presentation about police and forensic photography for “Archive Hour” at the Randall V. Mills Archive of Northwest Folklore. His current work is a continuation of a long-term critical documentary practice focusing on representation of resource extraction industry and labor communities. He is a cofounder JEN DARE is an English Ph.D. student Team Folklore: Graduate and curator of Grotto Gallerie, a free-floating with a specialty in folklore. She is interested students in Daniel gallery space. Wojcik’s course, History in the way in which mythological figurative and Theory of Folklore VINCENT BISSON received his B.A. in or narrative symbols simultaneously operate Research, celebrate the humanities from the Florida Institute of within contemporary religious movements, the end of the term by Technology. His interest in moving images American cinema, folklore, and popular feasting in the folklore and history has led him to investigate popular narratives. Her dissertation, which analyzes archive, subverting archival restrictions. culture, history, and audiences. His intended apocalyptic ideas, gender issues, and feminist thesis project will blend perspectives from fiction, is titled, “Throwing the Book at Him: folklore, popular culture, and history in order Apocalyptic Christian Theology and Feminist to investigate audience lore as well as the Dystopian Narratives.” Jen’s other interests relationship between audiences and historical include stories of the strange, the fantastic, films. and the unusual—namely the all-American ANDREW P. BROTTLUND is currently love of the outré in varying academic guises, working on his master’s degree in English especially zombies. with an interest in the folklore of the ROBERT DOBLER is a third-year student nineteenth century, and particular focus planning to graduate in fall 2009. His areas of on queer themes and issues including interest include alternative memorialization homosexual identity within the Victorian processes (Internet memorials, ghost bike period. His main textual focus will be the memorials, memorial tattoos), neocircus and fairy tales of Oscar Wilde, although he is also sideshow movements, the apocalyptic comic interested in the writings of Hans Christian books of Jack Chick, and American roadside Andersen and the connection between attractions (private museums, personal the homosexual and the archetype of the collections, outsider art environments, and vampire, particularly as it is portrayed in the “world’s largest” anything). He has won Victorian fiction. a few awards and published a small handful TIFFANY A. CHRISTIAN earned her B.A. of articles, encyclopedia entries, and book in English literature and creative writing from reviews. His project “Alternative Memorials: Pacific University, and she holds an M.F.A. Death and Memory in Modern America” was in creative writing from Chapman University. selected for the 2009 Folklore Studies in a Her research interests include apocalypse Multicultural World workshop and book (primarily postapocalypse) studies, cyber series program supported by the American studies, popular culture, and film in an Folklore Society. This year, he published American context. Tiffany is also a vocalist a chapter titled “ in the Machine: and songwriter, and she can claim world Mourning the MySpace Dead” in the music among her myriad interests. Currently, forthcoming book Folklore and the Internet: Tiffany is working on ideas for film projects Vernacular Expression in a Digital World, involving karaoke performance and local edited by Trevor Blank and published by disaster preparedness groups. Utah State University Press.

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 13 MIRA JOHNSON received her B.A. in ROBB NORTON is a Eugene native whose the great books from St. John’s College, primary research interests include new Annapolis, Maryland. A first year master’s media and digital culture. He has studied student, she is working with the folklore, documentary filmmaking and cultural studies English, and anthropology departments in England, as well as Japanese language to investigate the relationship between and culture in Japan. He was one of the spirituality and place, particularly natural filmmakers of the award-winning feature film environments. Her intended thesis project Pizza Girl, produced in Eugene. will focus on the Catholic mountain JENNY NOYCE is a first year Ph.D. student pilgrimage site of Croagh Patrick in County in English with an interest in folklore. She Mayo, Ireland. received an M.A. in creative writing from the ASHLEY GOSSMAN is a second-year University of Kansas, and is now studying master’s student interested in Tanzanian early twentieth century British and Irish material culture and women’s narratives literature. She plans to pursue research in about traditionality and authenticity in tourist postcolonial studies and the novel, folklore, art objects. Her final project work will be narrative, and national identity. done in Tanzania this summer, where she will In her life away from the university, volunteer with a women’s group and make a DEB PARKER lives in the high desert of documentary film about Tanzanian women central Oregon and teaches high school. She artists and batik printing traditions. Her B.A. is interested in ethnobotany, specifically is in cultural-visual anthropology from the in cataloguing the plants described in University of Florida. medieval literature and ballads, examining KOM KUNYOSYING is a Ph.D. candidate and evaluating the efficacy of traditional in English with an emphasis in vernacular uses of that plant life, and exploring the culture. His dissertation, The Interrelation symbolism associated with certain plants. In of Form, Theme, and Ethnicity in American her free time, she teaches ballet and loves to Comics, focuses on developing a critical do a host of outdoor activities ranging from framework for integrating literary theory scuba diving to camping with the Society for and the analysis of comics, and on ethnicity Creative Anachronism. and symbolic order in American literary In 2004, WHITNEY PHILLIPS graduated and popular culture located especially from Humboldt State University with a at intersections of verbal and visual B.A. in philosophy; in 2007, she received representation. He recently presented “The an M.F.A. in creative writing (fiction) from Interrelation of Form, Theme, and the Question Emerson College. She is now working on a of the Animal in Nick Abadzis’ Laika” at the decidedly un-English English Ph.D., pursuing Association for the Study of Literature and the structured emphasis in folklore in the Environment, in June 2009 at the University of English department, with specific focus on Victoria, and will present “The Interrelation of new media and the Internet. She is especially Ethnicity and Form in Gene Yang’s American interested in trolling, naughty humor, and Born Chinese” at the International Comics politics, not necessarily in that order. Arts Forum in October 2009 at the School of SUZANNE REED is a second-year graduate the Art Institute of Chicago. student with a degree in fine art and craft from JESSE LEROY MABUS is a master’s Evergreen State College. She served for three student specializing in folklore, anthropology, years as the Folk Arts Program assistant at and religious studies. He is currently on leave the Washington State Arts Commission. Her working with the Clatsop Community College interests include metalsmithing, fiber arts, library in Astoria, Oregon, and studying flame-worked glass, woodworking, folk arts Spanish. His previous work has focused on and cultural brokerage, figure skating, semiotic calendrical events in Olympia, Washington, games, and musical instrument construction. the WTO protests in Seattle, current antiwar Communication and society Ph.D. protests, as well as the neopagan tradition of candidate ANDRÉ SIROIS received a Lorry reclaiming. I. Lokey Journalism Scholar Award and a CAROLINE McNABB is interested in $10,000 scholarship that will allow him to female mythic and legendary characters in conduct field research this summer for his Oaxacan women’s narratives and folk art. dissertation titled “Scratching the Digital Itch,” She plans to pursue fieldwork in Teotitlan which focuses on the vernacular culture of del Valle, Mexico, in summer 2009. She hip-hop DJs and turntablists and their uses will explore negotiations of power, cultural of technology in the digital age. His alter ego, heritage and identity, and intercultural DJ Food Stamp, has been busy coordinating contact and syncretism. and promoting this year’s Bach Remix—a

14 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM performance-based “competition” where DJs do live turntablist remixes of Bach’s music—to coincide with the Oregon Bach Festival. Along with Professor Janet Wasko, he is putting the final touches on a book chapter titled “Toward a Political Economy of the Recorded Music Industry: Redefinitions and New Trajectories in the Digital Age” in the Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. With Shannon Martin of Indiana University, he is cowriting a law manuscript that analyzes the politics of copyright and art in the case of the pending lawsuit between Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press for Fairey’s use of an AP image in the production of the now iconic Obama Hope stencil piece, titled “Hope for a Fairey Use.” DON STACY’s studies emphasize folklore, journalism, and arts and administration. Don performed interviews and wrote scripts for administration. Current research interests Kelley Totten, Elizabeth segments of Making Pictures (a documentary include new religious movements, apocalyptic Dehn, and Mira Johnson about photojournalism at The Register-Guard eschatology, and prophetic tradition. make dumplings during and its function in the Eugene community), a Chinese New Year KELLEY TOTTEN is a third-year master’s celebration. which aired on OPB in 2007. In April 2008, student with a B.A. in journalism and French he finished All Mixed Up, a forty-minute from Washington and Lee University. This documentary on mixed tapes and CDs as summer, she will complete her thesis, titled material culture and folk process that he “Crafting Memories in the Mantaro Valley of presented at the 2008 Western States Folklore Peru: Performance and Visual Representation Society conference. The film’s companion in Craftswomen’s Souvenir Production.” The article has been accepted for publication thesis explores the experiences of craftswomen in the Folklore Forum. Currently, Don is from the Mantaro Valley of Peru who make working on a documentary about the Dutch traditional items to sell to tourists. This year, tradition of Sinterklaas (Surprise), celebrated she presented her film, A Week at the Folk on Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, and its School for “Archive Hour” at the Randall V. manifestations in the United States. Don Mills Archive of Northwest Folklore. is also a musician, painter, photographer, filmmaker, poet, autism program specialist, CHRISTY VRTIS is a first-year M.A. and a member of the UO Disabilities Studies student whose areas of concentration include Advisory Committee. folklore, English, and women’s and gender studies. She received her first B.A. in theater GAIL STEVENSON received her B.A. and psychology from Concordia College in in English from the University of Oregon Moorhead, Minnesota, and a second B.A. in in 2004. She is focusing on contemporary English from the University of Oregon. Her American folklore with an emphasis on folk current research interests include community art and material culture and behavior. Her gardens and folklore and ritual in African and fieldwork and final project center on an artist Caribbean women’s literature. in the Northwest who has created an outdoor art environment from salvaged materials and JENÉE WILDE has completed her first found objects. Gail is examining where such year as a Ph.D. English student with a idiosyncratic art stands within the dynamics concentration in folklore. Her research of community and tradition, and how it interests include queer theory, sexual functions therapeutically and as a source of subcultures, and American literature and social interaction. Her thesis, in progress, popular culture. At the National Popular is titled “Sharing Love through Art: Social Culture Association conference in April, Connections, Maintenance of Identity, and she presented a paper titled “Queer Matters Healing in Richard Tracy’s Ephemeral Art in Batman and Robin: Why We Insist on a Environment in Centralia, Washington.” Sexual Identity for Batman.” She has a B.A. in English and journalism from Boise State KEVIN TAYLOR received his B.A. from University and an M.F.A. in writing from the University of Oregon in philosophy and Goddard College. Prior to embarking on her religious studies. His areas of focus within second career as an academic, Wilde was a folklore are religious studies and arts and professional journalist and editor.

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 15 a B.A. in political science and a minor in Recent English. Her interest in dead languages has led her to study Latin, Old English, and Old Graduates Norse. She combines this love of language with her interest in Greek and Latin authors, EMILY WEST AFANADOR will continue which led her to study classics as well. Her making music and films after graduation. thesis is titled “Masculinity and the Male She plans to combine these, making Body from the World of the Ancients to the promotional featurettes and music videos for World Wide Web.” independent rock bands. After completing her project, a film titled Rocking the Boat: COURTNEY MCINTYRE received her Gender Dynamics in Co-ed Independent bachelor of science in secondary English Rock Bands of Eugene, her next documentary education from the University of Missouri at follows up on scholarly research of the griot Columbia. Her areas of focus in the Folklore tradition in West Africa, and will be filmed Program were anthropology and women’s in Mali and Burkina Faso in January 2010. and gender studies. Cortney’s current Nongovernmental organization management research and interests focus upon birthing will pay the rent while pursuing fame and rituals, with special emphasis on the ways fortune in the music and film industries. in which birthing centers and midwifery benefit women and society. Her thesis, titled VALERIE DOWBENKO graduated from the “Birthing Centers as Ritual Spaces: The Folklore Program in spring 2009. Her interests Embodiment of Compliance and Resistance include second generations of new religious under One Roof—A Case Study,” focuses on a movements, funerary rites for the deceased local, midwife-run birthing center, where she (specifically the Tibetan Book of the Dead), volunteers and assists with births. and traditions and religious rituals involving pain and suffering. Her thesis is titled “Living JOSEPH O’CONNELL’S thesis, titled Religion: Religious Practices of Young Adults, “The ‘Ruralismo’ of Rowntree Records: Spiritual Creativity, and the Dynamics of a Vernacular Music Media Production as New Religious Movement.” Group Formation and Place Identification,” examines expressive uses of sound recording ELIZABETH DEHN graduated from the in everyday life. This work culminates in Folklore Program in December and is looking an ethnographic social history of Rowntree for work in the field of museum education. Records, an “imaginary” record label and Her thesis, titled “We Are Still Here: Native social music-making scene operative in Artist Displays at the Museum of Natural and Richmond, Indiana, during the early 2000s. Cultural History,” consisted of a show at the He has also written about folk revivalism Museum of Natural and Cultural History in in contemporary underground music. In Eugene, Oregon. She is currently utilizing her March 2009, he attended Private/Public, folklore skills by videotaping interviews with an academic conference in Bloomington, local musicians for the Museum of Natural Indiana, planned collaboratively by Indiana and Cultural History and volunteering for University and Ohio State University folklore cultural events in the community. In March and ethnomusicology student associations. 2010, Beth is looking forward to teaching His presentation examined the creation of English in Uruguay with a Fulbright English a local micropublic around social practices Teaching Assistantship grant. of “folk” audio engineering—the home JENNIFER FURL studied in the Folklore recording of music using available consumer and Arts and Administration programs and electronics. He also gave a presentation the Department of Anthropology at Oregon. about Rowntree Records for Archive Hour Her final project, “Telling Stories, Moving at the Randall V. Mills Archive of Northwest Forward, Performing the Personal: How Folklore. This summer he will be working on Community Writing Programs Contribute a project with Traditional Arts Indiana, based to Changing Lives. Back-Story: A Plan for in Bloomington. a Nonprofit Organization,” focused on SUMMER PENNELL graduated in spring community writing organizations for adults. 2009. Her terminal project was a lesbian- and Currently, she is a freelance writer and editor feminist-slanted Indonesian wayang kulit living in Portland and volunteers with Write (shadow-puppet theater) titled “Pinang and Around Portland. Ayu: A Love Story,” which was performed ELIZABETH KRISTIN HANCOCK with Eugene’s Gamelan Sari Pandhawa in graduated from the University of Oregon with May 2009 and which won the Bruce Abrams

16 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM Graduate Award in LGBT studies, through the Program, AMY BARKSDALE continued her Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. research in folklore and cultural studies in Summer has been playing music with Sari the media and communications department at Pandhawa since fall 2007 and feels lucky to Goldsmiths, University of London, where she have the opportunity to learn and perform is a Ph.D. candidate. Her dissertation, “Sex, with the group. Her main interests are in Pseudosuicide, and Survival: The Cultural performance arts, gender, and sexuality. After and Political Significance of the Altgrrrl graduating, she hopes to work toward making Phenomenon,” evaluates the growing sex education in the public schools inclusive popularity of a subcultural identity she of and open to all identities, conduct research has titled “altgrrrl” among young women. with LGBTQ people, and continue learning Her research and teaching interests include gamelan in Indonesia. cultural studies, biopolitics, gender studies, ZIYING YOU is a native of Henan, China, and culture work. Amy works with service and is trying to be a good cook of Henan providers for self-harming women with cuisine, which is the most ancient cuisine the hope of developing the field of culture in China, and has been established as work and of incorporating the theory and the standard cuisine for Chinese national practical knowledge emerging from the fields banquets because of its comprehensiveness, of folklore and media and cultural studies into educational, medical, and criminal mild tastes, and wide acceptance. In justice programming models. Amy is a theory- addition to foodways, she has great interest based lecturer at London Metropolitan Film in the history of Chinese folklore studies; School and is a visiting tutor at Goldsmiths, the Chinese storytelling movement; and University of London. She can be reached performance, film, and traditional music. at [email protected]. Her M.A. thesis, titled “Tradition and Transformation: Toward an Interpretation of Chinese Foodways in the United States and Representations of Chinese Foodways in Modern Cinema,” is a study of the dynamics, variations, and functions of Chinese foodways in the United States, with a focus on those that have continued through time and across space, and that have been transformed by the processes of transnational and transcultural communication and interaction. After graduating from the UO, she will pursue her Ph.D. at Ohio State University, with a concentration in Chinese folklore. Alumni News and Updates O folklore alumni have gone on to Ucareers in academics, public-sector folklore, and various other interesting and intriguing occupations drawing directly from David Ensminger, in front of one of the display walls of their folkloristic, theoretical, and fieldwork the punk poster show for which he acted as curator. training in Eugene, Oregon. This year, we’ve selected a few former program members DAVID ENSMINGER graduated from the for the newsletter’s spotlight. Additional Folklore Program in fall 2008 and relocated biographies and work updates for many to Houston, Texas, where he focuses on others may be accessed online at www. rock ’n’ roll subcultures, plays in bands, uoregon.edu/~flr. Alumni are encouraged to and organizes concerts and flea markets. His visit the site to catch up with their colleagues thesis was titled “Visual Vitriol: The Urban and to submit new biographies and updates Folk Art and Culture of the Punk Generation.” for themselves. Examining the historic contributions of gays After graduating from the UO Folklore and lesbians, Hispanics, and skateboarders

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 17 in punk, he publishes articles in the Houston Miwa Dorothy Faux, who has the beauty of Press, Maximum Rock ’n’ Roll, and Trust her mother, the foolhardiness of her father, (Germany). In October, his paper and audio- and more stubbornness than both parents visual presentation, “Punk Gig Fliers as combined. While they currently reside in the Urban Folk Art,” was presented at the annual Bronx, they hope to own a house in Queens meeting of the American Folklore Society by the end of this year. in Louisville, Kentucky. In November, he KRISTIANNE HUNTSBERGER received acted as curator of a punk gig poster show at her M.A. in folklore with a graduate Umpqua Community College titled ”Visual certificate in women’s and gender studies Vitriol,” and he presented two lectures for in 2006. Her research focused on women’s the Oregon Diversity Institute at the college narrative rituals and their impact on social during the same month, including “The and spiritual identity. She received a Sumasil Shape of Youth Narratives: Rethinking the Foundation Grant and an Ethel O. Gardner Power of Street Art” and “Practicing History P.E.O. Scholarship for her documentary film from Below: Real Power to the People.” project about centenarian and Christian His manuscript, “Visual Vitriol: The Art Scientist Lorine Cady Willard. In the and Culture of the Punk Generation,” is intervening years, Kristianne has spent time being considered by the University Press traveling in Africa and Europe, writing, of Mississippi. Currently he is cowriting marketing literary events for Richard Hugo the biography of an iconic punk singer. House in Seattle, and working at the Seattle He has also established a folklore blog, Art Museum. Her writing can be found in modernfolklorists.wordpress.com, a visual publications such as Colors Northwest, Water compendium of modern folklore, featuring Bridge Review, Transitions Abroad, Asia by hundreds of images and video. In August, the Book, and Rain Taxi. he will join Lee College as a full-time faculty KATE RISTAU graduated from the member teaching English, composition, University of Oregon with her M.A. in humanities, and folklore. folklore in spring 2008. The title of her DAVID H. FAUX practices entertainment thesis is “Sacred Networks: How Catholic law in New York City. He serves as the Communities Affirm Belief and Sustain director of business affairs for the Dramatists Community on the Internet.” She continues to Guild of America. His past and present research how religious communities interact clients include individuals and organizations online. Her current work is focused on the involved in the theater, fashion, sports and virtual world of Second Life. She presented fitness, film, fine arts, photography, and preliminary research on faith in Second graphic design industries—and the rumor, Life at the Western States Folklore Society if you heard it, is true: one of his occasional Meeting in April 2009. Her presentation was clients is a professional psychic (he counsels titled “‘How will I ever go to confession if I her on corporate and business matters). He can’t make my avatar stop dancing?’: Logging has served on panels involving subjects as into the Sacred through Second Life.” She broad-ranging as theater and film financing, lives in Portland with her husband, Bob, and licensing contracts, authorial concerns when her dog, Winslow. She is currently teaching stage scripts are adapted to the stage, and composition courses at the University of obtaining underlying rights. He has lectured Oregon and enjoying it immensely. across the nation on “Author as a CEO.” He CASEY SCHMITT graduated from the UO has also chaired programs in boxing law in 2008 after completing his master’s thesis, and basics in fine arts and the law (e.g., art “Wilderness, Wildmen, and the Liminal gallery agreements). For the New York State Landscape: An Exploration of Supernatural Bar Association, he is on the Executive Space in the Oregon Folk Tradition.” In Committee of the Entertainment, Arts, and late spring and summer 2008, he helped Sports Law Section, where he also cochairs facilitate Professor Wojcik’s 2008 “Track the Fashion Law Committee and represents Town Traditions and the Culture of Running” member-lawyers from Brooklyn and Staten series, while serving on the production crew Island. Last year, Dave was very busy getting of the documentary film “Pre’s Rock: Legacy married to Kaori Kato at the beginning of and Lore.” In August 2008, he left Oregon the year. It was a Rinzai Zen ceremony at to begin work as a humanities instructor at midtown’s Shobo-ji Temple. The reception Parkland College, in Champaign, Illinois, had an amazing bluegrass band, Nieces teaching introductory college English, and Nephews, led by Uncle Sheriff Bob. research methods, and composition. In Before 2008 was out, his wife gave birth to

18 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM October, he presented a paper at the AFS system. She credits her dedication to public conference, “The McCandless Phenomenon: sector folklore, community documentation, In Pursuit of the Magic Bus,” that explored and the “mania” of video to the inspirational the emergent folk legend of American “crew” of professors at the University of vagabond Christopher McCandless and the Oregon Folklore Program including Sharon pilgrimage traditions that have developed Sherman, Dianne Dugaw, Daniel Wojcik, since his death. Also during the meeting, he and across the campus to Mark Levy, Carol chaired a panel on vernacular and outside Silverman, and Daniel Miller. To view videos art, while catching up with several of his made by youth from Portraits of Oregon see: former colleagues from the UO. In 2009, 4-hwebwizards.org. For Carol’s personal work Casey will join fellow UO alum and now with Anders Lund on short vignettes filmed Associate Professor Robert Glenn Howard at at the annual Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the University of Wisconsin at Madison as visit www.westernfolklife.org/site1/index. he begins work on a Ph.D. in communication php/National-Poetry-Gathering-Videos/ arts, focusing on rhetoric and oral narrative Gathering-Moments-on-Film.html. tradition, while continuing active folkloristic After completing her M.A. in the UO study and involvement through Madison’s Folklore Program, MICKEY STELLAVATO own folklore department. He hopes to worked for the 4-J School District as the engage in research on narrative and oratory natives program librarian. She then decided associated with concepts of death and dying, to apply to the School of Journalism and from legend and commemoration to eulogy Communication’s Ph.D. program, where she and gallows humor. Other recent work is currently finishing her first year of course includes research on comparative religion work. Her focus is using media portrayals, the and archetypical forms and characters as they first-person narrative, and visual ethnography appear in American graphic novels. as a means of talking about rape, very much CAROL SPELLMAN graduated from the in the spirit and intention of the testimonio. UO Folklore Program in 2002 with a focus Her hope is that by drawing connections on documentary video, ethnomusicology, through disciplines, working with women’s and Irish folklore that culminated in a paper advocates within the academy as well as with and documentary video, For the Love of the community activists, we might overcome the Tune: Irish Women and Traditional Music. stigma attached to rape and other forms of From 2002 through 2009, Carol worked as sexual violence against women in the United the folklife education coordinator at the States. Oregon Historical Society Folklife Program in ELAINE VRADENBURGH graduated from Portland, where she organized grant-funded the UO Folklore Program in 2008. Her thesis programs with the diverse folk artists living project, Making Music, Building Bridges, was in Oregon as well as with K–12 students. a fifty-minute documentary about a grassroots Several participants in Carol’s courses movement that has developed in the United received awards for their short documentary States to preserve Zimbabwean musical work including topics related to Latino, traditions. Her video is being distributed by Western, and Native American traditional Dandemutande and was recently featured arts. Recently she worked with master artists on Etude, an online literary nonfiction and their apprentices in the Traditional journal of the University of Oregon. Elaine Arts Apprentice Program and on the Oregon currently lives in Olympia, Washington, Historical Society’s Oregon Is Indian Country where she is active in the local filmmaking traveling exhibit, scheduled through 2010. community. She works for the Olympia Tribal council offices, libraries, and local Film Society as a fundraiser and board of historical societies in every county in Oregon directors coordinator. Elaine initiated a task host this exhibit. As senior convener of force to revive the Olympia Film Ranch, the the American Folklore Society Folklore educational program of the Film Society, and Education Section, Carol is recognized where she hopes to organize her first digital for her work in integrating folklore with storytelling workshop in the fall. She recently state education departments’ educational began working as a freelance video editor for standards. She received an honorable a youth-driven prevention education project, mention for her work on Portraits of Oregon. Gear Up with Music, and hopes to expand her Carol is currently working as an independent business to include folklore-related projects. public sector folklorist, teaching in-services Elaine can be contacted at elaine.vrad@gmail. nationally, assisting on grant panels, and com. instructing in the Oregon public school

FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM 19 Donate to the Folklore Program id you know that you could earmark your DUO donations to the Folklore Program? The tax-deductible money you donate can go directly to supporting students, program events, and the folklore archive. Donations can fund scholarships, awards, student film work, research, conference attendance, and additional graduate teaching fellowships. Each year, the folklore program depends on Recent graduates Ziying You (left) and Emily Afanador your generosity. This year, your donations (right) with Daniel Wojcik at the commencement ceremonies in June 2009. helped us purchase the following: If you wish to support the study of folklore The University of Oregon and cultural heritage, you may write a check is an equal-opportunity, sªª STATE OF THE ARTªDIGITALªRECORDERªFORªSTUDENTª affirmative-action institution projects to University of Oregon Foundation (write committed to cultural “Folklore Program” in the memo line), and diversity and compliance sªª UP TO DATEªIMAGINGªSOFTWARE with the Americans with mail it to the attention of Director, Folklore Disabilities Act. This sªª SUPPLIESªFORªTHEªFOLKLOREªARCHIVE Program, 1287 University of Oregon, Eugene publication will be made available in accessible sªª FUNDINGªFORªSTUDENTªSCHOLARSHIPSªANDª OR 97403-1287; you may contact us at (541) formats upon request. awards 346-3911; or donate directly on the internet Call (541) 346-1505. © 2009 University of Oregon sªª STUDENTSªTRAVELªEXPENSESªFORªCONFERENCESª through the Folklore Program website: DES0709-032b-H50090 and research uoregon.edu/~flr/alumni.

FOLKLORE PROGRAM 1287 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1287

20 FOL K LOR E STUDIE S | N E WSL E T T E R OF T H E UNIVER SI T Y OF OREGON FOLKLORE PROGRAM