Join us September 20–22 for three days of panel presentations and discussions with archivists, filmmakers, folklorists, musicians, and many more from around the United States. You’ll find the most up-to-date schedule below, but please note that it may be subject to change. All presentations will take place in the Old Madison room on the 3rd floor of Memorial Union.
Thursday, September 20
- 8:30am Memorial Union Plenary
- Jens Lund: “Forty Years of Public Folklore: Colleagues, Informants, & Parallel Experiences”
- 9:45am Memorial Union Panel on Negotiating Identity in Nordic Contexts moderated by Nathan Gibson
- Sallie Anna Steiner Pisera: “Traditional Arts and Heritage Rediscovery in Northern Minnesota Scandinavian Communities”
- Anna Rue: “‘I Invented Playing With Sticks!’ Völva Kona Kari Tauring Reimagines Nordic Heritage”
- Scott Mellor: “Åland: Navigating Identity”
- 11:15am Memorial Union Panel on Folklore and Politics moderated by Marcus Cederström
- Christine Garlough: “Feminist Folklore, and an Ethic of Care: Engaging Communities and Performers in Grassroots Politics”
- Hilary Virtanen: “Workers’ Worldviews in the Performances of Oren Tikkanen”
- Bucky Halker: “Need to Make A Dollar: Labor Protest Songs in Illinois”
- 12:30pm Lunch
- Click here for lunch options around Memorial Union or check out a hands-on demonstration of paper making on Library Mall, hosted by our friends at Holding History.
- 2:00pm Memorial Union Plenary
- Claire Schmidt: “Prison Landscapes and the Wisconsin Idea: Shaping the Study of an Occupational Culture”
- 3:15pm Memorial Union Panel on Identity and Community moderated by Thomas DuBois
- Christine J. Widmayer: “Identified by Food: Context and Creolization in Chaldean Foodways”
- Mirva Johnson: “The Oulu Cultural and Heritage Center”
- Theresa Schenck: “The St. Croix Chippewa: We Were Never Lost!”
Friday, September 21
- 8:30am Memorial Union Plenary
- Nicole Saylor: “Salvaging the Heyday of Publicly Funded Folk Arts”
- 9:45am Memorial Union Panel on Collections and Surveys moderated by Troy Reeves
- Robert Teske: “Documenting Wisconsin Folk Art”
- Kaitlyn Berle: “Looking Back and Looking Forward: Wisconsin’s Folklife Archive”
- Terri Van Ormen: “Not-for-Profit Collections: Opportunities and Responsibilities”
- 11:15am Memorial Union Panel on Archives in Use moderated by Amber J. Rose
- Mark Louden: “From Fakelore to Folklore to Folklife: Shoemaker, Frey, and Yoder and the Pennsylvania Dutch Idea”
- Jennifer Gipson: “Renewed Legends of New France: How Wisconsin’s Petrified French Explorer Lives On”
- Jason M. Schroeder: “Patriots and Parodies”
- 12:30pm Lunch
- 2:00pm Memorial Union Plenary
- Andy Kolovos: “Thoughts on Archives, Folklife and the Collaborative Reinvention of Cultural Practice”
- 3:15pm Memorial Union Panel on Archives and Collections Reimagined moderated by Tim Frandy
- Jared Schmidt: “Applying Ethnicity: The Case of Olga Edseth’s Hot Pink Rosemaled Pumps in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin”
- Becca Keyel: “Finding Tradition In The Archives: Exploring Archival Materials Through Experimental Making”
- Omar Poler: “Archives and the Wisconsin Idea: American Indians in Wisconsin”
Saturday, September 22
- 8:30am Memorial Union Plenary
- Yvonne Lockwood: “Experiencing the Real Upper Midwest”
- 9:45am Memorial Union Panel on Place-Based Maintenance and Revitalization moderated by Anna Rue
- Hilary Leathem: “‘Este Lugar Tiene Muchas Historias’: Visualizing History and Oral Traditions in Mitla, Oaxaca”
- Monica Macaulay, Joe Salmons, Cathy Stafford, and Rand Valentine: “So the Linguists Listened to the Folklorists”
- Anne Pryor: “Stacking Brooms: Drinking Traditions in the Expanding Sport of Curling”
- 11:15am Memorial Union Panel on Multimedia and Cultural Conservation moderated by Christine J. Widmayer
- Colin Gioia Connors: “Translating Context with Digital Media in Medieval Icelandic Literature: The eSaga Project”
- Jamie Yuenger: “Deep Roots”
- Guha Shankar: “Re-animating the Past: Traveling Through Michigan with Alan Lomax’s 1938 Films”
- 12:30pm Lunch
- 2:00pm Memorial Union Plenary
- Richard March: “The Making of Wisconsin’s Public Folklore Infrastructure”
- 3:15pm Memorial Union Panel Response and Discussion
- Jim Leary
- Janet Gilmore
The event is generously sponsored by the Anonymous Fund; the American Indian Studies Program; the Borghesi-Mellon Workshops; the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures; the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic; the Folklore Program; the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, and the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest project.
All events are free and open to the public. Click here if you are looking for accommodation options.