Overview

The work folklorists do on the ground and in communities can make a concrete difference in quality of life. While the field is not immune to extractive, racist, colonial, heteronormative, and misogynistic practices, it can counter and combat these same forces in society. Culture Work presents case studies of public-oriented work that define the Wisconsin Idea of folklore in all its complexities, challenges, and potentialities. This Wisconsin method focuses on doing folklore work of the community, for the community, and with the community, and explores the vast numbers of creative possibilities that such processes and products entail for culture workers. Featuring contributions from top folklorists and public humanists, the volume asks, what is the value of public folklore to the public? What are we actually doing when we engage in culture work? And how can we build better cultural agendas, initiatives, and representations?   Thematically arranged chapters represent interconnected aspects of culture work, from amplifying local voices to galvanizing community from within to reflecting on how we might use folklore to build the world we want to live in. Together, the collection presents a cross-section of the many innovative and essential culture works occurring today in the field of folklore and the humanities more generally. These inventive projects provide concrete examples and accessible theory grounded in practice, encourage readers to embark on their own public culture work, and create new forward-looking inspiration for community leaders and scholars in the field.

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9780299338206

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Reviews

"""A seminal work of impressively informative scholarship.""--Midwest Book Review ""An admirable set of case studies of contemporary public folklore work in and outside the academy. . . . As time goes on and the field continues to develop, Culture Work will come to be a valuable portrait and assessment of the state of the field at this moment. . . . [It] makes an articulate contribution to the ongoing project of evidencing, in emphatic and broadly understandable terms, what the humanities and humanistic social sciences are (good) for.""--Journal of Folklore Research Reviews ""Filled with stories of individuals, communities, and cultural workers dedicated to sustaining the traditional songs, stories, material culture, and knowledge of the region, and insights into how those expressions cultivate and enhance community. . . . Culture Work will be an engaging read for anyone interested in the power that lies within the practices of sustaining, reimagining, or creating new cultural traditions.""--Wisconsin People & Ideas ""A timely and much-needed resource for those inside and outside academia, Culture Work provides a powerful overview of the value of public folklore and humanities across private and institutional sectors while raising issues associated with cultural work in a politically and socially stratified country.""--Lisa Gilman, George Mason University"

A timely and much-needed resource for those inside and outside academia, Culture Work provides a powerful overview of the value of public folklore and humanities across private and institutional sectors while raising issues associated with cultural work in a politically and socially stratified country. --Lisa Gilman, George Mason University

Author Information

Tim Frandy is an assistant professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University and the editor and translator of Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar. B. Marcus Cederström is the community curator of Nordic-American folklore in the department of German, Nordic, and Slavic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the coeditor and translator, with Thomas A. DuBois, of Songs of the Finnish Migration: A Bilingual Anthology.

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