FSU 2020 DIGITAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Click on the orange underlined title of each session to join the room via zoom. To download the conference program click here (However, last minute changes will only be feature in the program below)
9:00am
Welcome
Co-Presidents Christine Elyse Blythe and Christopher James Blythe
9:15am
Session 1A: Literature, Folklore and the Folkloresque
Chair: Jill Rudy, Ph.D. (Brigham Young University)
Alex Ziegler (Utah State University), “Women in Fairytales: Feminism and the Folkloresque”
Madison Sheldrake (Brigham Young University), “Worldbuilding, Literature, and Folklore”
Session 1B: Latter-day Saint Folklore: Names, Foodways, and Vernacular Religion
Chair: Christine Elyse Blythe (Wilson Folklore Archives, Brigham Young University)
Erica Smith (Brigham Young University), “Xaiden and Dallin: Folkloric Influences on Utah Baby-Naming Perception”
Rachel Ross (Penn State University), “Mormon Women and Vernacular Religion”
Cristina Rosetti Ph.D. (UC Riverside), “Memory Suspended in Brine: Canning and the Preservation of Mormon Culture”
10:30am
Session 2A: Folklore Narratives: Utah to Maritime Canada
Chair: Eric Eliason, Ph.D. (Brigham Young University)
C.J. Guadarrama (Utah State University), “Try to Sink: The Forgotten History of Utah’s Fightin’ Brines”
Andi Pitcher Davis (Artist and Performer), “Hole in the Rock Scouting Accident”
Claire Gillet (Brigham Young University), “‘The Folkway Podcast’: Preserving and Perpetuating Canadian Folk Art Tradition through Digital Storytelling”
Session 2B: Supernatural Folklore
Chair: Christopher James Blythe, Ph.D. (Brigham Young University)
Anna Allred (Brigham Young University), “Death Bed Visions”
Steven Merrell (Utah State University), “Wizards, Witches and Warlocks: How Folklore is Affected by Sex and Gender”
Victoria Jaye (Utah State University), “In the Presence of Evil: Patterns of Perception Within the Demonic Narrative”
11:45am
FSU Digital Conference Luncheon
Join FSU members, presenters and attendees for a live zoom luncheon.
12:45pm
Session 3A: Revenants, Ghosts, and Witches of Utah
Chair: Lynne McNeill, Ph.D. (Utah State University)
Danny B. Stewart (Independent Folklorist), “Faeries, Spirits, and the ‘Human-faced Stag’ of Vineyard, Utah… it’s still Spooky”
Melanie Kimball (Brigham Young University), “Ghost Stories from Brigham Young University”
Hanna Seariac (Brigham Young University), “Witches in Nineteenth-Century Utah”
Session 3B: Ostentation, Fairy-Tale Tourism, and UFOs
Chair: Nan McEntire Ph.D. (Indiana State University)
Daisy Ahlstone (Ohio State University), "‘Ostensive Behavior’: Exploring the Limitations of Two Combined Theories”
Claudia Schwabe Ph.D. (Utah State University), “Fairy-Tale Tourism in Germany: On the Road with the Brothers Grimm”
Matthew Bowman Ph.D. (Claremont Graduate University), “Betty Hill, Barney Hill, and the Creation of UFOs”
2:15pm
Keynote Lecture
Introduction: Lynne McNeil Ph.D. (Utah State University)
Andrea Kitta Ph.D. (East Carolina University), “Covid-19: Why Folklore is More Important than Ever”
Andrea Kitta is a folklorist with a specialty in medicine, belief, and the supernatural. She is also interested in Internet folklore, narrative, and contemporary (urban) legend. Her current research includes: vaccines, pandemic illness, contagion and contamination, stigmatized diseases, disability, health information on the Internet, and Slender Man. She is co-editor of Contemporary Legend, a scholarly journal published annually by the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research.
Dr. Kitta is the recipient of the Bertie E. Fearing Award for Excellence in Teaching (2010-2011). She received a Teacher/Scholar award from ECU (2015-16) and the Board of Governors Distinguished Professor for Teaching Award (2018-2019). Her monograph, Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception, won the Brian McConnell Book Award in 2012. Her monograph The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore, won the Chicago Folklore Prize and Brian McConnell Book Award in 2020.