AFS 2002 Rochester

This year AFS has its annual meeting from October 16 to 20 at the Hyatt Regency, Rochester, New York. Newfolk@AFS will be there. Join us for a section meeting and get to know other folklorists working in areas of emergent folklore in modern culture.

Newfolk@AFS will also sponsor a panel presentation at the Rochester meeting, On-Line Communities, which includes the following papers:

• Carol Burke: Jane Fonda As The Subject Of Cyber Legends


• Lydia Fish: Fac-Ing Around On The Web: Sharing Folklore In Cyberspace


• Letisha Kamlay: The Wizard Homemaker And The Warrior Student: Avatars, Players, And The Negotiation Of Identity In "The Realm"


• Robbin Zeff: Now They'Re Claiming They Discovered Community: Confessions Of A Folklorist From The Early Days Of Online Advertising

Abstract

Any folklorist knows that the lounge at work, the bar after work, the playground, even eating areas in suburban malls serve as places where folklore is exchanged and enjoyed. Any computer user knows that the internet offers virtual locations where communities form and folklore proliferates. Jokes are endlessly forwarded. Legends circulate with abandon. Gamers meet in exotic locations. Computer users lace their conversations with net speech. This panel presents four papers that investigate the function of folklore in on-line communities.

We invite everyone to come out and support these fine scholars in the very first ever panel sponsored by NEWFOLK@AFS.

See you in Rochester!