Ethnological Matterings: SIEF New Video Series

 

The next video of the SIEF video series "Ethnological Matterings" is available online now:

Guha Shankar tells us that working in an institution like the American Folklife Center is a privilege because it enables him to give voice to people who have not been heard for a long time.

The newest video and all other videos of the "Ethnological Matterings" series can be found here: https://www.siefhome.org/videos/EthnologicalMatterings

Online Open House: Studying Folklore and American Studies at Penn State!

Penn State's American Studies Program, located on its Harrisburg campus, is currently accepting applications for its MA, PhD, and graduate certificate programs (folklore and ethnography, heritage and museum studies). 

On Friday, November 16 at noon, Dr. John Haddad will be hosting an online open house especially for prospective doctoral students. You can take part in this session live by pre-registing here: https://harrisburg2.vmhost.psu.edu/calendar/event/phd-american-studies-online-open-house

Participants in the session will receive a waiver of their application fee. The video of the session will also be available online after it concludes.

The American Studies program integrates perspectives on United States history, culture, and society, while emphasizing the application of American studies to areas of public interest. Major areas of research focus include material and popular culture; history and politics; folklore and ethnography; regional, urban, and environmental studies; and public heritage and museum studies. The program also manages the Pennsylvania Center for Folklore (sites.psu.edu/pafolklore).

For more information, please visit our website at: https://harrisburg.psu.edu/humanities/american-studies
Contact John Haddad (jrh36@psu.edu) or Anthony Bak Buccitelli (abb20@psu.edu) with any questions!

'Origins of Halloween' Film for International Babel Festival in Italy

·        

A film about the origins of Ireland's biggest Halloween Carnival has
has been selected for the Babel Festival in Sardinia, Italy in early December.
Babel is an international film festival promoting 'minority languages'.

The festival director believes they "are more oriented to a poetic
vision of the world and are closer to the life of communities, the
frame that makes life worth living day after day".

The European Parliament is a patron of the festival.

In this year's programme, languages range from Cree, Innu and Kurdish to
Sámi, Swahili and Yazidi, including European languages like Basque,
Welsh,Catalan, Ladin and Sardu.

The only other Irish film in the festival, Rúbaí, has already won Best Short
Drama awards at festivals.
Festival is at: http://www.babelfilmfestival.com/programma-2015
The film, Spiorad na Samhna -- Spirit of Samhain, is on Vimeo at:
https://vimeo.com/101398600

Film traces origins of Ireland's biggest Halloween Carnival in Derry back
to troubled years of 1980s. Film uses footage from spectacular 2013
Inferno show, produced by LUXe, based in Donegal.

It also traces origins of Halloween  to the Celtic festival of Samhain.
Dr. Jenny Butler from the Folklore Department of University College,
Cork narrates this strand.