Resources

WKU offers financial assistance to students.

The KIIS-WKU Department of Folk Studies & Anthropology Study Abroad Scholarship supports student participation in a KIIS study abroad program. The Kentucky Institute for International Studies or KIIS is a non-profit consortium of universities and colleges that offers summer term, winter term, and semester-long programs in non-English speaking countries for WKU credit. The faculty-led programs include undergraduate courses taught in English, visits to points of interest in-country, and opportunities to engage with local communities. Recipients must be declared as anthropology or folklore majors/minors and have completed at least nine hours of coursework in their program of study. For more information contact the department.

The Anthropology Program offers the Drs. Du-Powell Scholarship in Anthropology to support student research and study abroad/away. The scholarship was established by Dr. Chunmei Du to honor the memory of her late husband, Dr. Lindsey Wells Powell, a member of the WKU Anthropology faculty from 2009-2014. Anthropology students who have completed at least 12 hours of anthropology courses are eligible to apply. The application deadline for the 2024-2025 scholarship cycle is February 29, 2024.  [to complete the application, open the document as read-only then save-as or duplicate the file with a new name]

The Mary Kilgore Underrepresented Student Scholarship Fund supports recipients based on financial need who bring an element of diversity to the WKU student body through their age, race, ethnicity, creed, disability, or socioeconomic background. Recipient must at least be sophomore status, have a gpa of 2.5 or higher, and be a resident of the United States, with preference given to students from Kentucky and surrounding areas. Recipient must be majoring in PCAL, with preference given to students in Folk Studies, Anthropology, and Philosophy and Religion. For more scholarship information, visit TopDollar.

The Ranger Alex Rose Memorial Scholarship Fund supports full-time students based on financial need. First preference is given to students who have a specific interest in working for the National Park Service or related agencies. Second preference is given to students who have successfully through-hiked the Appalachian Trail and are registered accordingly with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, possess experience in volunteer work or employment in outdoor recreation, or demonstrated involvement in an adventure club or other outdoor organization. Additional preference is given to students who meet these criteria but have overcome adversity or any major life obstacles that could have prevented them from attending college. If no students meet these criteria, must be a junior or senior classification who have overcome adversity and are majoring in a specific subject area including Anthropology or minoring in Folklore or other programs. For more scholarship information, visit TopDollar.

The department has ethnographic field equipment available for use by students, faculty, and staff for course projects and independent research. This includes Digital SLR cameras, digital audio field recorders, Marantz field recorders, external microphones, and transcription software/pedals. Field equipment is available for check-out in the department office.

Additional ethnographic field equipment is housed in th Anthropology Student Collaborative Learning Space (see below).

The Anthropology Lab, located on the first floor of Cherry Hall and directed by Dr. Jean-Luc Houle, has a dedicated classroom, collections storage rooms, an equipment storage room, and wet and dry labs. It houses archaeological, osteological, and ethnographic teaching and research collections, as well as archaeological site documentation, archaeological field equipment, archaeological and osteological laboratory equipment, comparative collections, and an archaeology reference library. There are opportunities for students to volunteer or work on collections management and curation projects at the Anthropology Lab, as well as opportunities to conduct research using certain collections. Anthropology Program activities are often held at the Anthropology Lab.

The Anthropology Lab also houses the staff offices of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey. During the school year KAS sponsors a weekly Wash Night event on Wednesday evenings from 5:00-7:00pm in the Anthropology Lab. Volunteers assist with processing and cataloging artifacts collected during KAS field projects. Wash Nights are open to the WKU community and the public.

Other anthropology teaching collections held in department classrooms include casts of non-human primate skulls and replica skulls of ancient human ancestors such as australopithecines, Homo erectus, and neandertals.

Opening in Fall 2024, the Anthropology Student Collaborative Learning Space in Fine Arts Center 240 offers a comfortable space for anthropology students to gather between classes, work on class projects, and have meetings. Funded with the generous support of an anthropology alumnus, the ASCLS offers Mac and PC workstations. table space to work on personal electronic devices, a printer and a scanner, a collection of anthropology books and journals, appliances (microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker), and lounge seating. Software available on the workstations includes Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud suites. Anthropology students access the space with a WKU id swiper.

The ASCLS also houses audio and visual field equipment including Panasonic video cameras, microphones, field mixers, light kits, and tripods. It hosts an immersive environment system (Oculus Rift) and a large format television with DVD and VHS players for screening films and media, as well as a library of journals, books, and films dedicated to the production and creation of multimedia ethnography. Recent student and faculty media projects can be viewed on our YouTube Channel.

The Folklife Archives contain WKU student and faculty research projects on traditional and modern folk traditions. The Archives include a large number of sound recordings of interviews and musical performances. They are also home to the Lynwood Montell Collection, featuring hundreds of interviews with people in south central and southeastern Kentucky; and to the Sarah Gertrude Knott Collection, documenting forty years of the annual festival of the National Folk Festival Association (later known as the National Council for Traditional Arts).  

The Gardner House is an early 19th century brick hall-and-parlor house located on the WKU Green River Preserve. It is one of the oldest standing buildings in Hart County. Since 2003, faculty and students in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology have been active in researching and documenting the building and archaeological evidence of its construction and occupation. Read more about ongoing work at the Gardner House on our Projects page.

Our current Folk Studies graduate students compile an annual guide to help students coming into the Master's program transition more smoothly to life in Bowling Green and at WKU. It includes tips on things like housing, course registration, and groceries and other services. 

American Folklore Society 

http://www.afsnet.org/

Local Learning, The National Network for Folk Arts in Education

http://www.locallearningnetwork.org/

American Folklife Center

https://www.loc.gov/folklife/

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

https://folklife.si.edu/

National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts Program

https://www.arts.gov/artistic-fields/folk-traditional-arts

Open Folklore

https://openfolklore.org/

Folk Streams

http://www.folkstreams.net/

Publore

https://list.unm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=PUBLORE

Kentucky Arts Council

http://artscouncil.ky.gov/

Vermont Folklife Center Equipment Guide

https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/field-recording-equipment-guide

Kentucky Oral History Commission

https://history.ky.gov/resources/kentucky-oral-history-commission/

American Folklore Society Advocacy Toolbox

http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.afsnet.org/resource/resmgr/Advocacy_Toolkit/Advocacy_Toolkit_Print_Versi.pdf

Folklore Wiki

http://www.afsnet.org/?page=FolkloreWiki

The Morgan Room (FAC 248) is named in memory of a deceased graduate of our Folk Studies program, who donated equipment and books to the department. The substantial library in the Morgan Room is available for Folk Studies graduate student use and is partially circulating. The room currently serves as the primary classroom space for graduate students, as well as a meeting and informal gathering space. 

Designed by Louisville architect Brinton B. Davis, who built many of the historic structures on WKU's campus, the 'pioneer log cabin' was constructed in the mid-1930s to commemorate and interpret Kentucky's pioneer life. In 2004, the building was restored for use for the Folk Studies Program and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in June 2013, it became home to the Kentucky Folklife Program. The cabin continues to provide an intimate setting for classes, concerts, and events. (Need directions to the cabin?)

Both the Anthropology and Folk Studies programs offer a regular series of workshops to facilitate our students' professional development. These workshops include topics such as applying to graduate school, preparing resumes and cover letters, submitting conference proposals, and finding internships. See our calendar for upcoming topics and dates.

We encourage our students to attend as many professional conferences as possible and we try to offer financial support for these professionalization and networking opportunities, especially for students presenting papers/posters. Our students regularly attend annual meetings of national organizations including the American Folklore Society, the American Anthropological Association, and the Society for American Archaeology, as well as regional and state conferences. Departmental faculty mentor our students' participation in the annual WKU Student Scholar Showcase each spring. See our calendar for dates of these and other upcoming conferences!

The designated WKU subject librarian for our two disciplines maintains targeted research guides for our students and faculty, including one for Anthropology/Archaeology, and one for Folk Studies. They helpful guides list discipline-related journals and websites and offer guidance for finding reference materials in the library and online. Students, faculty, and staff can schedule appointments with the WKU subject librarian on these webpages.