A Symposium in Honor of Roger D. Abrahams

VOICE / o v e r   is planned in honor of our colleague and mentor, Roger D. Abrahams, on the occasion of his retirement from directing the Center for Folklore and Ethnography, and his semi-retirement from teaching.

We'll build on discussions begun at conferences held at Penn over the past two years, Second Nature and Take/Cover. The conference begins here, on this website's Sounding Board, with the posting of brief opening chords--meditations, ruminations, arguments and other short disquisitions--on current trends, issues, problems, and possible directions for the field of folklore. (See the framework for discussion for more information.)

The online event will culminate in a two-day symposium on March 22 and 23 on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. We invite all of you to respond to, build on, and take issue with, the postings on the Sounding Board, and in the coming weeks leading up to the March gathering we will post your responses and counter-responses. Themes and issues that emerge during the online discussion will form the basis for sessions at the two-day symposium in March. Watch this site for additional postings and a symposium program. We look forward to hearing from you and to seeing you in March.

Mary Hufford mhufford@sas.upenn.edu
Dorothy Noyes noyes.10@osu.edu