Digital Commons Network^™

"God Put It Into My Heart": Omen-Seeking And Divine Communication Narratives In Contemporary American Protestantism, Emma Crisp

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project examines omen-seeking practices within Protestant Christianity in the U.S. Intermountain West. It collates and analyzes the results of ethnographic research into the ways that mainline Protestants experience, interpret, and talk about their personal spiritual experiences. The project finds that divinatory and other omen-seeking practices exist in this context but are not recognized or discussed as divinatory due to the conflation of divination with sortilege and the prevalence of prayer as the primary solicitation method for Protestant forms of augury. Emic categories of omen are distinguished not through generation method (such as the solicited/unsolicited distinction proposed by Tom Mould), …

Making The Old New: The Recontextualization And Traditionalization Of Tree Spirits In Video Games, Alexandria Ziegler

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Folklorists study the active rituals between humans and deities, as well as the inactive participation between them in narrative. However, they do not study the active participation that comes in the form of video games between them, though with shifts in society, this new way of engaging through digital forms is widespread and accessible. In my research, I studied Russian and Japanese tree spirits in a variety of video games to understand this new form of engagement with ancient deities. These video games are Okami, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Black Book, and The Witcher 3: The …

The Sea Calls: A Selkie's Liminal Existence, Frances Avery

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Traditionally, the selkies (or seal people) of Scottish-Irish lore exist between spaces: the land and the sea, human and animal, childbearing and childless. Their existence at sea is voluntary but their existence on land is forced. Once the selkie has left behind its sealskin and both the literal and metaphorical sealskin has been stolen, the selkie becomes subject to human will. The lenses of body, reclamation, violation, and abuse prove that the reason why selkies have faded from popularity is because the lessons are too mature for a young audience. A feminist and queer reading and interpretation of this traditional …

Personal Identity And The Influence Of Outlaw Folklore, William "Bacon" Nivison

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Folklore being a relatively new science there is still debate going on about what Folklore actually is. Most of what one reads is relative to who the “folk” are, where the “lore” comes from and how it is inspired. This thesis looks at folkore from a viewpoint which observes folklore from the other direction. Not how do the folk create the lore, rather how does the lore create the folk?

Folklore is well shown to be a product, or at least an abstract of one’s personal identity, but, is it not also a tool used by the individual in the …

“It’S A Hoax!” A Practical Guide For Understanding And Surviving Weird Internet Phenomena, Camille S. Price

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project dives into some of the darkest of online spaces, as I seek to uncover the legends, narratives, and beliefs that encourage and popularize culture surrounding self-harm. Building on the extensive research that has been conducted on folk antagonists born on the internet such as the Slenderman, I will discuss another character named Momo who, according to legend, lead their primarily young followers through a series of self-inflicted, harmful acts, each increasing in severity, with the final act ultimately being the taking of one’s life. Research will examine social media threads, YouTube videos, film/television, and fan fiction to unpack …

The Union Of Opposites: Carl Jung, Folklore, And The Caduceus And Ouroboros In Alchemy, Jack Daly

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis advocates for the use of Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theory in folkloristics by examining the role of the caduceus and the ouroboros in alchemy as a case study. Although a Jungian lens has not been widely accepted by folklorists, it can and should be applied to folklore, particularly in the context of binary oppositions. Folklorists such as Alan Dundes have been harshly critical of this perspective. However, Dundes also stressed the importance of binaries in folklore. Furthermore, Dundes championed the theory of symbolic equivalences, and in my paper I argue that the caduceus and the ouroboros are examples of …

Licentious Legends: A Folklore Podcast, Alexandra L. Haynes

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Licentious Legends was created out of a need to both understand and educate about sexual contemporary legends; not just what they are and what defines them, but the effect that they have on those who experience them. The purpose of this podcast is not to shame, but to take what has been found and educate about the joys and dangers of these legends. These legends range from the everyday (such as "The Hook"), to legends about a young man killing himself with a plunger. In an effort to gather as many examples as they could, Faye interviewed several of their …

Constraints Of Haunted Heritage Tourism In Logan, Utah, Kylie Schroeder

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

It has become common in Salem, Savannah, New Orleans, Edinburg, or Gettysburg, to witness groups of people being led through the darkened streets as part of a ghost tour or haunted history walk. An altered form of commercialized legend tripping, these companies offer guided tours, feature spooky stories, and often showcase local history. However, the trend of haunted heritage tourism, especially in the form of ghost walks and haunted history tours, has spread beyond places with national or international reputations for hauntings and is now growing in small towns whose stories are rarely shared beyond the local populace.

This thesis …

Hanging From The Poplar Tree: Kanye West And Racism In Internet Folklore, Magen Olsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Folk ideas regarding African-Americans in nineteenth century America fueled racially charged stereotypes that served to promote segregation into the 1960s. Despite the belief of many Americans that the Civil Rights movement has ushered in an era of “postracism,” artifacts of digital culture prove that racism is still prevalent in American culture. Members of online social groups spread rumors and memes of popular African-American figures to propagate old racist stereotypes and spread conspiracy rumors among younger audiences.

Folklorists Bill Ellis, Gary Fine, Véronique Campion-Vincente, and Patricia Turner provided foundational scholarship on rumors, conspiracy theories, and how they divide ethnic groups in …

Saucers And The Sacred: The Folklore Of Ufo Narratives, Preston C. Copeland

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In 1973, nineteen year old Calvin Parker and forty two year old Charles Hickson, both of Gauter, Mississippi were fishing in the Pascagoula river when they heard a buzzing noise behind them. Both turned and were terrified to see a ten-foot wide, eight-foot- high, glowing egg-shaped object with blue lights at its front hovering just above the ground about forty feet from the riverbank. As the men, frozen with fright, watched, a door appeared in the object, and three strange Beings floated just above the river toward them. The beings had legs but did not use them. They were about …

The Legend Of The Almo Massacre: Ostensive Action And The Commodification Of Folklore, Jonathan A. Floyd

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The following thesis is based on the role a legend plays in establishing and influencing a sense of identity and reality within a community and area, in this case the legend is of a massacre occurring in Almo, Idaho in the early 1860s. I found this legend of the Almo massacre while looking for an excuse to rock climb in the nearby City of Rocks National Reserve. I explored the Almo legend through interviews, historical documents and books and came to think that the Almo legend played a critical role in defining a sense of local reality for Almo, Idaho, …