Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology News

On Thursday and Friday, March 21 and 22, WKU Folk Studies students attended the Annual Collins-Bramham Public Folklore Workshop with this year’s guest, Andrea Graham. Students participated in a session in which Graham described her career trajectory in public folklore and offered advice for students as they prepare for careers in folklore, as well as a workshop about the exhibit Art of the Hunt: Wyoming Traditions, put on at the Wyoming State Museum by Graham and her colleagues based on folklore fieldwork throughout the state. Student also met individually with Graham.

Andrea Graham is a Folklife Specialist in the American Studies Program at the University of Wyoming, where she conducts fieldwork statewide and produces public programs. She served for ten years as the Folk Arts Coordinator for the Nevada Arts Council, and fifteen years as the contract Folk Arts Coordinator for the South Dakota Arts Council. Graham has also worked for state and regional arts and cultural organizations in Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida, and as an independent folklorist and oral historian, undertaking research and producing programs in California, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. She received the American Folklore Society’s Botkin Award for lifetime achievement in public folklore in 2017. 

This event is supported each year by funding from the Bramham/Collins Visual and Performing Guest Artist Endowment. The Folk Studies program appreciates the generous support of Drs. Bramham and Collins, which makes it possible to bring an esteemed public folklorist to campus each year to benefit graduate students.