American Studies Commons^™

A United, Not A Divider: Community, Identity, Performance & The Tomato Krewe Parading Group Of East Nashville's Tomato Art Festival, Allison Cate

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the “Tomato Krewe,” a social group that participates in the parade of East Nashville’s annual Tomato Art Festival. Drawing on participant-observation, interviews, and my own experiences as a member of the krewe and resident of East Nashville, I examine krewe members’ narratives about the festival, the material culture that they create for the parade, and the levels of performance that they engage in while parading. Central to my analysis is how krewe members understand the Tomato Art Festival as an expression of East Nashville identity.

2022 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2022 IGGAD Conference: Who Owns This? Communities, Heritage, and Preservation.

Ethnography Of Reading Comic Books, Azadeh Najafian

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores why adults read comic books. This research used the ethnographic method and interviewing eleven people, four women, seven male, as its primary source. Based on information and common themes gathered from interviews, I built this thesis into one introduction, three body chapters, and a conclusion.

In the first chapter, I argued that comics could function the same as myths and explained this function and related examples under the “mythic effect” name. In the second chapter, I discussed how my informants use reading comics as a means to escape their everyday lives and how sometimes this escapism carries …

Animal-Human Vocabulary Builder, Domenick Acocella, Rene Cordero

Open Educational Resources

The assignment helps students individually build a usable, expanding vocabulary of terms and concepts, enabling each to further contribute to the ongoing, evolving written, oral, and visual conversations centered on the use of and thought about animals for food, clothing, work, entertainment, experimentation, imagery, and companionship.

Western Kentucky University Archives Of Folklore And Folklife Manual (Fa 1373), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1373. Manual titled “Folk Speech Section of WKUAFF,” created to provide organization and conventions for the collection of student folk projects created by folk studies students for the WKU Archives of Folklore and Folklife or the Folklife Archives. The manual includes survey sheets with responses from a brief questionnaire about vocabulary, dialect, and linguistics across Kentucky. This collection also includes questionnaires from other student projects used to gather vocabulary about a particular subject, i.e. mules, quilting, folk songs, remedies, etc.

2020 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2020 IGGAD Conference: Without Borders: Tracing the Cultural, Archival, and Political African Diaspora.

A Damn Short Prayer, Beth Jane Toren

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This poster presents a transcript poem created with murder tales in oral history recordings. Leveraging the creative arts of storytelling, transcript poetry and visual orality, the poster brings light and music to Appalachian storyteller voices in tales of shady murders.

The handout presents the poem with visual orality methods juxtaposed beside Standard English orthographic transcription, enabling a visual comparison, a link a video with graphic text and the original voice recordings, and brief readings about concepts and methods.

Schottenfeld, Judith Dian (Fa 1309), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1309. Student folk studies project titled “Construction of the White Oak Basket, ”which includes an interview with Walter Logsdon about the traditional basket making process in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Project includes sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, tool, and photo.

Waldrop, Melanie (Fa 1310), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1310. Student folk studies project titled “Basketmaking for Walter Logsdon: ‘A Way of Life,’” which includes two interviews with Walter Logsdon about the traditional basket making process in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Project includes sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, tool, and photo.

Fekety, Steve (Fa 1311), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1311. Student folk studies project titled “Basket Making,” about the traditional basket making process in Wax, Grayson County, Kentucky. Project includes sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, illustration, material, tool, and/or photo.

Sadewasser, Judith K. "Judi" (Fa 1308), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1308. Student folk studies project titled “The Folkways of Walter D. Logsdon: Basketmaker,” which includes an interview with Walter Logsdon about the traditional basket making process in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Project includes interview transcriptions along with sheets with a brief description of each traditional practice, tool, and photo.

Mccartt-Jackson, Sarah, B. 1982 (Fa 1290), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1290. Student collection titled “’Clogging’s Just Clogging’: The Richard McHargue Cloggers and Approaches to Vernacular Percussive Dance Study” in which Sarah McCartt-Jackson conducts an interview with Richard McHargue, a clogging instructor from Richmond, Kentucky. The interview contains McHargue’s early dancing memories, clogging terms, and opinions about the contemporary state of clogging. The collection also contains a partial transcript, fieldnotes, interview questions, content index, photographs, and the recorded audio interview on CD.

Brown, Chloe Jo, B. 1991 (Fa 1289), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1289. Student collection titled “Dale Cross: The Art of Flintknapping” in which Chloe Brown examines the commercial, historical, and cultural factors that have influenced the production of arrowheads. Brown interviews Dale Cross, a flintknapper from Burkesville, Kentucky who is renowned for his artistic skills. The paper addresses Cross’ personal aesthetics, flintknapping processes, and his business-related endeavors. The collection includes an academic paper, a transcription, CDs containing the recorded audio interview and photographs, and one of Cross’ arrowheads.

Jameson, Jennifer Michelle, B. 1987 (Fa 1288), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1288. Student paper titled “Finding the Folkways of a Forensic Anthropomorphologist: The Kentucky Yard Art Of Cecil and Bet Ison” in which Jennifer Jameson explores the creative endeavors and identities of two folk artists in Rowan County, Kentucky. Jameson, who conducted her fieldwork over a period of two weeks, examines flower sculptures, upholstered trees, bottle cap murals, beadwork, and other vernacular expressions pieced together by the Isons in their built environment. The paper also discusses the relationships between the Isons and their community, personal aesthetics, educational backgrounds, and connections to broader cultural issues. …

Bemiss, Roger (Fa 1274), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1274. Student paper titled “Barb Wire” in which Roger Bemiss includes black and white photographs of an assortment of barb wire designs. Bemiss includes the official name of each type of wire as well as the date that it was patented.

2019 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2019 IGGAD Conference: Tracing the African Diaspora: Places of Suffering, Resilience, and Reinvention.

Speculative Futures And Futurism In Appalachia, Liz Pavlovic, Jamie Banks, Nicholas D. Bowman, David Smith, Baaria Chaudhary, Ben Babbitt, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, Daniel Boyd, West Virginia University Press

Exhibit Panels

What if we thought of Appalachia as futuristic? Could the mountains be the setting for imagining better, maybe weirder, futures? Artists, writers, and game designers have been asking just those questions, speculating through science fiction, fantasy, and magic realism to rethink the ways cultural traditions in wildly creative ways. From folktales to videogames, cryptozoology to underground highways, this section asks what a future Appalachian utopia (or dystopia) might look and feel like?

Heritage, Tradition, And Craft In Quiltmaking (Fa 1131), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1131. Collection contains Interviews, photographs, and informant data sheets relating to Sandy Staebell's project with quiltmakers in Allen County and Monroe County, Kentucky and Macon County, Tennessee for the 2017-2018 Osby Lee Hire and Lillian K. Garrison Hire Memorial Lecture Series.

Cultural And Narrative Shifts Of Nineteenth Century Children's Literature In Hawthorne's Wonder Book For Girls And Boys, Kristen Clark Brandt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Both folklorists and literary critics have been drawn to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s body of work because of his distinctive style and incorporation of folk motifs. Such motif-spotting presents no challenge in Hawthorne’s juvenile literature like his retellings from Greek mythology in Wonder Book for Girls and Boys; however, contemporary folklore redirects the focus of this scholarship to “how particular literary uses of folklore fit into a larger, more fundamental concept of what folklore is and how and what folklore communicates” (de Caro & Jordan 2015:15). Hawthorne’s work interacts with other forms of cultural expression in the nineteenth century such as dominant …

Foodways (Fa 1202), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1202. Collection of papers written by students in Professor Barry Kaufkins’ Foodways class (FLK/ANTH 388) at Western Kentucky University. While a majority of the papers focus on Easter traditions, other topics of note include immigrant foodways traditions, fundraising efforts, community organizations, tailgating, and sorority life. Papers also include photographs taken by students.

Tinker, Robert Rush (Fa 1149), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1149. Student folk studies project titled “Playground Language: [Newburg, Kentucky]” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of playground rhymes in Newburg, Jefferson County, Kentucky. Sheets may include rope skipping rhyme, group game, informant’s name, and text classification.

Warren, Kaye (Fa 1150), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1150. Student folk studies project titled “From Slavery to Freedom for the Negro Race in Logan County [Kentucky]” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of African American life in Logan County, Kentucky. Sheets may include interviews, written records, photographs, informant’s name, age, and address.

Clarke, Kenneth Wendell, B. 1917 (Mss 635), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 635. Manuscripts, notes, publisher’s correspondence, and photographs relating to the scholarly work of WKU English and folklore professor Kenneth W. Clarke, principally "Bud Long: The Birth of a Kentucky Folk Legend" and "The Harvest and the Reapers."

On Being Trans: Narrative, Identity, Performance, And Community, Chloe Jo Brown

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis focuses on various topics related to transgender identity and culture. Through a combination of ethnographic and secondary research, I studied transgender coming out narratives, trans media representation, transgender performance and identity, and conceptualizations of group and chosen family in a community of trans students, the WKU Transgender and Non-Binary Student Group.

The three chapters of my thesis address some of the traditional milestones of a trans person’s acculturation: coming out, constructing one’s newly discovered trans identity, and finding community. Chapter 1 explores coming out as transgender, and the way in in which coming out is valued and discussed …

Archbold, Annie And Barbara Dubczak (Fa 379), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 379. A reel-to-reel audiotape recording of a program titled “Documents in Sound: A Sample in Folk Arts,” which was sponsored by the Barren River Regional Arts Council with funds from the Kentucky Folklife Foundation. According to the tape summary, the program includes five separate features, which can be played as individual vignettes or as a full 29-minute program. Features include traditional artists and cover topics such as woodworking, broom making, basket making, weaving, and drawn work.

Cederquist, Nancy (Fa 378), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

FFinding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 378. Multiple interviews with Mrs. James Hall conducted by Nancy Cederquist on 22 February 1985, 1 April 1985, and 22 April 1985. Hall, a resident of Bowling Green, discusses her passion for quilting, her preferred patterns, fabric care, and her experiences with a local quilting group.

Conaster, Victoria (Fa 377), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 377. Interview with Joe H. Page conducted by Victoria Conaster on 3 April 1993. Page, a resident of Lewisburg, discusses his childhood memories of growing up on a tenant farm. Topics covered include tobacco harvests and sales, pest control, traditional farm lore, home remedies and religious life.

Allen, David (Fa 368), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 368. Interview with Annie Duvall conducted by David Allen on 16 April 1998. Duvall discusses her personal experiences growing up in Muhlenberg County. Topics covered include dating, marriage, gardening, family vacations, religion, women’s rights, and changes in modern technologies.

Jaggers, Ben (Fa 1116), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project FA 1116. Folk studies student project titled: “The Art of Basket Making,” which includes a description of the traditional process of making baskets in Wax, Grayson County, Kentucky. Project includes a description of two types of baskets, traditional practices, tools, photos, and informant’s name. Photographs by David Sutherland.

Pickering, Tammie & Gary Collins (Fa 348), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 348. Student paper titled “Trees in Folk Crafts” in which Tammie Pickering and Gary Collins explore the connection between trees and traditional folkways. Paper details the medicinal properties of sassafras tea, which is made from tree roots, the production of maple syrup, and the expressive crafts of wood-carving and carpentry. Data collected from three working-class residents of Caldwell County. Paper also includes field journals, recorded interviews, and transcripts.