The American Folklore Society (AFS) was founded in 1888 by William Wells Newell in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Among the society’s first members were Mark Twain and American president Rutherford B. Hayes. Finally, in 1945, the AFS was inducted into the American Council of Learned Societies and is currently a member of the National Humanities Alliance. The society works to develop and maintain partnerships within the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Humanities Alliance.
Since its foundation, the American Folklore Society’s purpose has been “ to stimulate and encourage interest and research in folklore in all its aspects; to aid in the dissemination of the results; to promote responsible application of such research in the broad variety of settings in which folklorists work; to publish and distribute publications, reports and journals; to serve as the bound among those interested in the study of folklore; to enhance the professional well-being of the Society’s members; and to engage in such other activities as are consonant with the foregoing purpose” (AFS website). Although the American Folklore Society was founded and is based in the United States, nearly one-eighth of its members are from outside the United States.
The AFS has published the serial Journal of American Folklore since its foundation, and it is currently one of the oldest journals of its kind in the world. This is just one of the many publications of the AFS, which also includes Children’s Folklore Review, Digest, The Folklore Historian, Jewish Cultural Studies, and New Directions in Folklore. According to the AFS website, the society also contributes to a wide variety of folklore causes, in addition to annual publications. The society contributes to the AFS Review newsletter and opinion-essay venue and the AFS Annual Report. They maintain several scholarly communications websites and tools, including the AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus, the H-Folk listserv for international folklore volumes of the MLA International Bibliography, and the Open Folklore Portal. Additionally, they maintain official institutional archives and an oral history project in partnership with the Utah State University Library.
Every October, the ASF hosts a conference that brings in more than 700 folklorists from around the world to promote the exchange of work and ideas through cultivating relationships. Participants are not required to be members of the AFS, although members are given special discounts and access to research and books at the meeting that non-AFS participants cannot access. Those attending the conference do not even need to have submitted work to the conference: if a person wishes to participate, that person need only register and pay the registration fee.
Apart from their full membership option, AFS offers three additional alternatives: section membership, Web-only membership, and international sponsorship. Members of the AFS receive a number of benefits: four issues of the Journal of American Folklore and free online access to full-text via Project MUSE. Members are given full access to JSTOR’s (Journal STORage digital library) folklore journals for a discounted price. They receive discounts at the annual meetings on registration fees, titles advertised at the meeting, and on purchases made at the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings catalog. Additionally, members are allowed to contribute to the AFS website by editing content in the AFS Review newsletter and commentary section, the Folklore Commons knowledge-base wiki, and the site’s forms. They are also allowed to search and access AFS’s member-only content on their website. Members can serve on the society’s various committees and work groups and vote and run for society offices. They can take part in the AFS’s special projects that are restricted to members, join any of the AFS’s interest-group sections, and receive AFS prizes and AFS section prizes. Section memberships allow access to specific topics and areas of the AFS. The section list is topical in nature. Some of the AFS sections include Storytelling, Nordic-Baltic Folklore, Medieval and Early Modern Folklore, Mediterranean Studies, History and Folklore, Folklore and Literature, Folklore and Creative Writing, Folk Narrative, Dance and Movement Analysis, and Children’s Folklore. Non-AFS member may join AFS sections but do not receive AFS member benefits. Web-only membership is free but must be renewed annually and allows the registrant access to the public forums and free discussions. International sponsorships are given to members and potential members who live outside the United States to ease currency and other restrictions. AFS members are encouraged to donate a small amount to the sponsorship, which donation the AFS will match. Members are also encouraged to nominate current or potential members for sponsorship.
AFS’s special-interest projects are meant to increase public awareness and understanding of the folklore field of study, support the work of society members and their home organizations, and build partnerships with other organizations. Some of their current and recent special-interest projects include Consultancy and Professional Development Program, Veteran’s History Project, China-US Forum on Folklore and Intangible Cultural Heritage, Folklore and Historic Preservation Policy Working Group, Big Questions and the Disciplines Project, Civil Rights Oral History Survey, and World Intellectual Property Organization. All of these projects help to build relationships between folklorists as well as between folklorists and their local, national, and international communities.
Zachary Q. Metcalfe
See also Folklore and Folktales; Twain, Mark
Further Reading
American Folklore Society website. http://www.afsnet.org.
Bronner, Simon J. 1986. American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Bronner, Simon J. 2002. Folk Nation: Folklore in the Creation of American Tradition. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources.
Clements, William M. 1988. 100 Years of American Folklore Studies: A Conceptual History. Washington, DC: American Folklore Society.