December 4, 2022

USU Folklore had a strong presence at the annual Folklore Society of Utah Conference, which took place at Westminster College the weekend of November 18-19, 2022.

The Folklore Society of Utah was founded in 1958, and this year’s conference marked the 50th anniversary of students presenting at the annual meeting. Faculty members Afsane Rezaei, Lisa Gabbert, Deanna Allred, and Christine Cooper-Rompato attended in support of the presenters listed below:

  • Emma Crisp (MA Folklore student), “Chuubo Makes a Terrible God-King: Oral Storytelling Techniques in the Roleplaying Games of Jenna Moran”
  • Drew Holley (MS Folklore student), “’I think my video is haunted’: Legend Tripping on TikTok”
  • Margaret Hsiao (PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric), “Using Folk Narrative Principles to Deliver Engaging PowerPoint Presentations” 
  • Megan Miller (BA/MS student in Folklore), “Women’s Traditional Roles in Ghost Stories”
  • Melissa Peterson (MS Folklore student), “Wilderness: A Boundary for the ‘Other’”
  • John Priegnitz (MS Folklore student), “The Legend Trippers Progress: The Legendary Destinations Grid”
  • Samuel Rowels (BA English 2022), “From Narcissus to Hanahaki: Parasitic Flowers, Imbued Meaning, and the Dying Body”
  • Millie Tullis (MS Folklore student) won the Alta S. Fife Graduate Student Paper Prize for her essay “Plenty of Peepstones: Spiritual Gifts and Sacred Landscape in Early Utah.” The Fife prize is awarded to the best undergraduate and graduate student papers on any aspect of Mormon or Western folklore.

In addition, USU Folklore alumni Jack Daley (2020), who is currently a PhD student in American Studies at Penn State Harrisburg, presented “Mothman, the Silver Bridge Collapse, and the Folklorization and Commemoration of Actual Events,” and Lori Lee (2015), producer of the Love Your Story podcast, chaired a session on LDS folklore.

USU faculty had a strong showing at the conference, as well. Dr. Lisa Gabbert presented on “Beaver Mountain: Oral Histories of Snow.” Deanna Allred, the secretary of the society, organized the program and also chaired a panel. And Dr. Afsane Rezai was voted in as acting vice president of the society.