The Soul of a Folklorist: Historical Moments, Political Representation, and the Weight of Social Responsibility

Ann K. Ferrell is Associate Professor of Folk Studies at Western Kentucky University. She is author of Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century and editor (with Martha C. Sims) of Narrative Knows No Boundaries. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of American Folklore (2016-2020). Diane E. Goldstein is Professor Emerita in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. She is author of Once Upon a Virus: AIDS Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception and (with Sylvia Ann Grider and Jeannie Banks Thomas) of Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore. She is editor of Talking AIDS, (with Amy Shuman) The Stigmatized Vernacular: Where Reflexivity Meets Untellability, and (with Ben Bridges and Ross Brillhart) Behind the Mask: Vernacular Culture in the Time of COVID.