SAVE THE DATE

2023 WSFS Annual Conference

University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

Friday and Saturday, April 14-15, 2023

Theme: Folklore, Time, and Temporality

Recent events in the world, ranging from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to geopolitical conflicts to the ever worsening climate crisis, have brought heightened attention to previously taken-for-granted notions of time. Amidst disruptions in everyday temporalities, perceived relationships between past and present, and shared visions for the future, we have seen the ways in which folklore can serve as a resource for creating, enacting, and mediating alternative temporalities that lay bare the limits of conventional notions of time, as well as our individual and collective relationships with them.

Of course, the clear relationship between time and folklore (both the “stuff” and the field of study) is certainly not unique to this moment. With this theme, WSFS encourages presentations that consider the rich, dynamic relationship between folklore and time. Possible topics addressing this theme could include, but are certainly not limited to, cultural temporalities (cyclical, linear, etc.), queer temporalities, longue durée, deep time, ephemerality, “time out of time” in festival and ritual, life cycles, calendar customs, objects of memory, eschatologies, temporal contexts of performance, temporal elements of narration, and aesthetic dimensions of temporality.

As always, the theme is a suggestion for those considering presentation, not a requirement. We welcome proposals for individual presentations and organized panels on any topic related to folklore.

Please note that 2023’s Archer Taylor Lecture will be given by Amy Shuman, Professor at the Center for Folklore Studies at The Ohio State University.

Full particulars regarding the 2023 Annual Meeting will be provided in a formal Call for Papers. Meanwhile, we have issued a Call for Panels, inviting those who wish to create a panel for the Annual Meeting.