Course Archives: 2023 - 2024 | Center for Folklore Studies

SPRING 2024 COURSES

GRADUATE LEVEL

In this course we’ll look at different methodologies for the study of myth, starting with older theories such as the ‘myth and ritual’ approach in order to develop a feeling for the roots of myth studies, and move by the middle of the semester to methods in use today (narratological, a reboot of the myth and ritual approach, new versions of structuralism, etc.). Although the primary materials for examination will be Greek myths, comparativism underlies all my own work and I warmly welcome students whose focus is on the myths or sacred stories of other cultures. Contact me (johnston.2@osu.edu) for more info!

Prereq: Not open to students with credit for Classics 870. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs

This course is a graduate-level introduction to ethnography that is rooted in the perspectives and practices of folklore, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology. Students will conduct semester-long mini-ethnographies on a topic of their choosing. You will develop skills in approaching members of a community, observing social interaction while participating in it, developing research questions, conducting interviews, and, ultimately, analyzing the discourse you’ve observed, participated in, and recorded using the tools of ethnography of communication. We’ll talk about concrete and conceptual issues critical to conducting ethnography, including research ethics, collaboration and working relationships with community members, navigating tense situations, writing and using fieldnotes, and thinking through ethnographer positionality. In the second half of the class, we’ll read foundational and contemporary ethnographies of communication, considering such issues as the politics of representation, the interplay of language and context in meaning making, speech genres and styles, and language ideologies. Your mini-ethnography will culminate in the preparation of a conference paper.

How does this class differ from the Ohio Field School?

The Center for Folklore Studies’ field school is a graduate/undergraduate class and practicum in which students conduct a collaborative ethnography project, working with grassroots community organizations to explore how Appalachian Ohioans are responding to economic, environmental and cultural change through their everyday practices and expressive culture. Sustainability and archiving are central objects of inquiry, with more specific research questions developed collaboratively among students and community members each semester. There is also often a strong focus on material culture and environment, and each semester’s project culminates in a public exhibit.

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 770.02, 770.03, English 6751.02, 6751.22, 770.02, or 770.03. Cross-listed with ENGLISH 6751.02.

The Comparative Studies Interdisciplinary Learning Laboratories are two-part year-long courses that seek to give participants opportunities to engage in sustained interdisciplinary research, to workshop their research projects in conversation with one another, and to share their projects with broader publics. Taken in conjunction with CompStd 8100.

Prereq or concur: 8100. Repeatable to a maximum of 18 cr hrs.

This interdisciplinary graduate seminar begins with the proposition that all politics are a politics of the body. We will therefore set out to examine how (human) bodies are framed and deployed for political functions, how they circulate or are constrained, and how people choose to put their bodies on the line as testimony of their political
investments. We will draw from multiple fields of inquiry, including performance studies, critical cultural theory, political philosophy, as well as theater and dance performance. We will further consider how political and performing bodies negotiate identities, display themselves or are displayed for others, protest social inequality, and experience pain--even death. We will bring a choreographic lens to bear on each of these topics, along with a set of of analytical tools attuned to the perils of having one's body on the line.

Prereq: Grad standing or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 760.03, 860.01. VSP Admis Cond course.

Methods for generating and interpreting field data; contested history and ethical challenges of fieldwork in human geography.

How do we generate evidence to address our research questions? What are the advantages and pitfalls of specific approaches? This course is designed to explore these and other questions relating to how we create and interpret data in/from the "field" - that complex social, environmental and political space in which we learn firsthand about the world. Students will critique and practice a 'mixed methods' approach, including ethnographic strategies, visual techniques, surveys, archival research, landscape interpretation and more. We will discuss overarching themes such as reflexivity, representation, power, ethics and activist research.

Graduate students in any field who are planning to conduct primary research on human/social/natural phenomena are welcome.

Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 800.01 or 870.01. Credit Hours 3.0

GRADUATE/UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

Students learn to study anthropological problems through hands on experience with ethnographic methods, critical discussion of issues in ethnographic research and design of an ethnographic study.

Through a series of lectures, discussions, and hands-on experiments you will learn the tools that cultural anthropologists use in the conduct of ethnographic field research.

Readings:

Jeffrey Cohen, Eating Soup without a Spoon: Anthropological Theory and Method in the Real World, University of Texas Press, 2015.
Kimberley Kirner & Jan Mills, Introduction to Ethnographic Research: A Guide for Anthropology. Sage, 2020.
Kiner and Mills, Doing Ethnographic Research: Activities and Exercises. Sage, 2020.
Andrea Ballestero and Brit Ross Winthereik, Experimenting with Ethnography: A Companion to Analysis, Duke University Press. This book is available as a pdf on our carmen site. You can also find copies online to download.
H. Russel Bernard, Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Sixth Edition (all editions are exceptional). This book is only required for graduate students.
Additional materials are available as pdfs on our class carmen site.

Prereq: 2202 (202), or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 650

CH 5400 covers topics in the rich and exciting panorama of oral and oral-connected performance traditions of CHINA and a bit of SOMEWHAT BEYOND (Mongolia, Myanmar, NE India). The focus is on a mix of local traditions that, at the instructor’s discretion, may include professional storytelling, epic singing, folksongs, ritual, folk dance, puppet shows, and local drama of local cultures and ethnic groups from China, and a few traditions from the borderlands. Content will be explored from an interdisciplinary/intersectional perspective that will be based in folkloristics theory (the primary orientation), and include ideas from performance studies, material culture studies, ethnopoetics, trans-indigenous studies, eco-criticism, etc. The implications of Intangible Cultural Heritage projects and ethnic tourism will be addressed, as well as translation studies. Taking a multi-ethnic/multi-cultural approach, stress will be given to the idea that the performance traditions in China, rather than being parts of a monolithic “Chinese” tradition are better represented as diverse and distinct traditions with occasional similarities that exist or have existed within (and sometimes without) the modern borders of China. The course is not a comprehensive coverage of the hundreds of local traditions, but it will alert students to the variety and nature of this vast corpus, of which much remains to be explored and documented.

Prereq: 2231, 2232, 2451, 2452, EALL 1231, Japanse 2231, 2451, 2452, Korean 2231, 2451, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 600.

The Ohio Field School course offers an introduction to collaborative ethnographic field methods (participant-observation, field notes, photographic documentation, audio interviews), archiving, and the public exhibition of research for both undergraduates and graduate students. Students will contribute to a team-based, immersive, field research project designed to document the ways that diverse communities express and pre-serve a sense of place in the face of economic, environmental, and cultural change in Southeastern Ohio. Throughout the semester, students will practice skills necessary to construct a permanent record of local expressive culture accessible to future researchers and community members. Attendance at an information session and application is required for registration. For more information, visit https://cfs.osu.edu/archives/collections/ohio-field-school

Prereq: Permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 12 cr hrs.

What does it mean when you're told to "use your common sense"? This course examines the idiom of common sense in relation to debates over the authority of knowledge, the value of practical experience, and what should be shared or shareable in social life. Our interdisciplinary exploration will start with folklore: how children (and artists) play at the border of sense and nonsense, how proverbs and other kinds of pedagogic discourse produce everyday "good sense," and how leftover formulations continue to circulate as clichés or "commonplaces," often with disruptive social consequences. Then we'll look at debates on the relation of the senses to knowledge and the communicability of experience across sociocultural divides, thinking about consensus and dissensus as socially accomplished. We'll read about the history of common sense as a democratic, sometimes populist, political ideal that interacts with the rise of secular modernity, professionalization and expertise, race ideology, American nationalism, and technocratic politics. This will bring us to the present: division and mistrust in the age of social media, "fake news," and AI; questions about the possibility of shared understandings when social worlds fragment, interests diverge, and structures discriminate; and new imaginings of commonality (or separation) in social justice projects.

This is a graduate/undergraduate course that benefits from heterogeneity: students at all stages and with any focus are encouraged! You'll write a personal essay about your own socialization and a final paper on the "common sense" of some current issue. No exams, but active participation is expected in discussion and short writings.

Prereq: Not open to students with maximum qtr cr hrs for 651. Repeatable to a maximum of 12 cr hrs.

This class offers an introduction to the Old Irish language, a key Indo-European language that was spoken in Ireland from c. 600 – 900 CE and is the ancestor of Modern Irish and Scots Gaelic. It is also a vehicle for exploring a rich and interesting folklore tradition.

This course is a blend of a language class and a linguistics-of-that-language class, with the target language being Old Irish. We plan to spend time each week explaining the grammar and vocabulary of the language, based on the reading of authentic texts, and also presenting selected topics in the linguistic development of Old Irish.

This class is open to all interested parties, undergraduates as well as graduate students. No prior knowledge of Irish or of linguistics is needed, as long as students keep an open mind and are willing to work on this fascinating language.

Questions? Contact Prof. Collins at collins.232@osu.edu and/or Prof. Joseph at joseph.1@osu.edu.

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs.

UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

Folklore is the culture that people make for themselves. Not all of us are specialists, but all of us tell stories and cultivate communities. This class explores everyday expressive forms including stories, customs, objects and digital forms shared in informal contexts. Recurring central issues will include the dynamics of tradition, the nature of creativity and artistic expression, and the construction of group identities. We will consider various interpretive approaches to these examples of folklore and folklife and will investigate the history of folklore studies through readings and an independent collecting project in which students will gather folklore from the field, document it and interpret it for meaning. Under-read and represented texts in the field of folklore were intentionally chosen as readings for this course. By the end of this course, students should gain a basic orientation towards thinking through the power and significance behind the everyday creative expressions of their communities.

Guiding questions: How do people express themselves in traditional forms? How are social concerns articulated in stories, jokes, memes and other genres? How does human creativity burble up in everyday life?

Though this is a hybrid class, it requires a high degree of participation and engagement with your classmates as well as reading. You will be reading as much as 50 pages of text per week, and additionally will be asked to engage in digital exhibits and media. This course works a little differently than others you may have encountered, as we will hold one synchronous class via CarmenZoom and one class in-person each week. For your efforts, you will develop insights with your peers and with me as you practice your analytical and communication skills to gain higher levels of awareness and aptitude that will serve you throughout your life.

Prereq: English 1110 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2350H, English 2270, or 2270H. GE cultures and ideas course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies and race, ethnicity and gender div course. Cross-listed with ENGLISH 2270.

This section of 2367.05 is designed to employ the core concepts and methods of the field of folklore as the basis for reading assignments and writing projects. Because the theme of this course is the U.S. Folk Experience, we will begin with a brief introduction to basic concepts of American folklore and ethnography, including folk groups, tradition, and fieldwork methodology, focusing on how these concepts and methodologies contribute to the development of critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. Along the way, we will explore the diversity of experiences of different groups in the U.S. both through course readings and through your writing assignments and projects.

Prereq: 1110. GE writing and comm: level 2 and diversity soc div in the US course. GE theme lived environments course.

Rumors and spooky stories, superstitions and conspiracy theories, fake news and folk belief, UFOs and elves: folklorists study all these things and more as legendry, the genre in which societies work through their most pressing fears, beliefs, and doubts. Take this course for a deep dive into how legend crystalizes cultural anxieties and how people use legend in ongoing debates about the nature of our world.

Potential Texts: Lynne McNeill, Folklore Rules: A Fun, Quick, and Useful Introduction to the Field of Academic Folklore Studies; Reidar Christiansen, ed., Folktales of Norway.

Potential Assignments: Collection project, short writings

Questions: What happens at the edge of narrative credibility?

Prereq: 10 qtr cr hrs or 6 cr hrs of English at 2000-3000 level, or permission of instructor. 5 qtr cr hrs in 367 or 3 cr hrs in 2367 in any subject is acceptable towards the 6 cr hrs. Not open to students with 10 qtr cr hrs for 577.02. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 cr hrs.

A general survey of socio-cultural trends and issues in modern Greece through close examination of ethnographies and other folk expressions.

Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 268. GE VPA and diversity global studies course. GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course.

An introductory comparative survey of the mythology of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Prereq: English 1110, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course. GE theme lived environments course.

Autumn 2023 Courses

GRAD COURSES

ENGLISH 6751.01/.11: Intro to Graduate Study in Folklore: The Philology of the Vernacular
Merrill Kaplan
Thursday 12:40 - 3:40 PM

How do we interpret traditional forms and the cultural practices that create them? How can we read informal cultural expression as text within the context of its performance? How can we get our hands around the multiple existence and variation of this slippery object of study?

This course provides a lightning introduction to folklore and the intellectual wellsprings of folkloristics. It then moves on through several genres of traditional expression such as festival, work song, legend, memes, verbal dueling, and costume with an eye towards developing the tools necessary for their interpretation.

COMPSTD 8100 / Interdisciplinary Learning Laboratory: Folklore and Archives
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth and Katey Borland
Monday 9:15-12:00 PM

The Comparative Studies Interdisciplinary Learning Laboratories are two-part courses that seek to give participants opportunities to engage in sustained interdisciplinary research, to workshop their research projects in conversation with one another, and to share their projects with broader publics. Expect to enroll in CompStd 8200 subsequent to this course. Repeatable to a maximum of 18 cr hrs.

UNDERGRAD COURSES

COMPSTD 2350 - Introduction to Folklore
Daisy Ahlstone
Monday / Wednesday 3:55 - 5:15 PM

COMPSTDU 2350H (2270H) - Introduction to Folklore
Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth
Wednesday/ Friday 9:35 - 10:55 AM
A general study of the field of folklore including basic approaches and a survey of primary folk materials: folktales, legends, folksongs, ballads and folk beliefs. Prereq: Honors standing, and English 1110 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2350, English 2270, or 2270H. GE cultures and ideas course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies and race, ethnicity and gender div course. Cross-listed in English.

COMPSTDU 2322 - Introduction to Latinx Studies
Mintzi Martinez Rivera
Tuesday/ Thursday 9:35-10:55 AM
The history, politics, and cultural production of Latinx communities in the U.S. and its borderlands. Prereq: Completion of GE Foundation Writing and Information Literacy course, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for Spanish 2242. GE cultures and ideas and diversity soc div in the US course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies and race, ethnicity and gender div course. Cross-listed in Spanish 2242.

COMPSTD 4597.03 - 10 Global Folklore
Katherine Borland
Wednesday / Friday 11:10 - 12:30 PM
This course provides an exploration of the dynamics of folklore in a global environment. We will interrogate how culture becomes rooted in place (immobility), how it circulates (mobility) and how it moves from one group to another, one context to another (migration), producing a variety of consequences. How do people from all walks of life create meaning and beauty in their everyday lives? How do communities and groups maintain a collective sense of themselves that distinguishes them from other communities/groups, particularly in a period of rapid globalization? What does it mean to respect and conserve cultural diversity? And what do patterns of cultural circulation tell us about relations between individuals and groups, institutions and groups, as well as among nations. Students will begin by learning key concepts of folklore scholarship: culture, place, tradition, performance, genre, the local/global distinction, the folk/popular divide, the interplay of the customary and innovative in folklore production. Students will develop an expansive definition of folklore as the means by which groups both distinguish themselves from as well as fashion bridges with diverse communities. We will look at the ways folklore moves through a range of concepts spanning everything from sacred ritual to touristic display. We will focus on the transmission and transformation of cultural knowledge and practice in situations of want and plenty, peace and conflict, mobility and rootedness attending to the relations of power operating in and through traditional culture.

NELC 3667 Messages from the Beyond
Tuesday / Thursday 2:20 - 3:40 PM
Messages from the Beyond (NELC/RELSTDS 3667) is a new cross-listed course between NELC and Religious Studies that fulfills the undergraduate Lived Environments GE Theme. It is a course in human behavior in which students will explore how people from antiquity to our time have sought to find meaning in the complexity and uncertainty around their physical and social environment to access meaning in what they perceived to be hidden realms. A majority of the world’s people believe in a reality beyond our observable mundane existence. The effects of this worldview are all around us, from preachers and prophets who claim to speak the word of God to daily horoscopes in newspapers and the Internet. Messages from the Beyond is a course in human behavior.

NELC 5568/CompStd 5668 Seminar Studies in Orality and Literacy
Michael Swartz
Wednesday 3:55 - 6:30 PM
Studies in Orality and Literacy (NELC 5568/CompStd 5668) is a seminar that explores the nature of oral traditions, what it means for a culture to have a primarily oral literature, and the complex relationships between orality and literacy. This course can be taken by undergraduates, and it also fulfills a requirement for MA and PhD students. Before people wrote texts, they told stories, said prayers, learned lore from their parents and teachers, and carried out their culture and religion—all without writing. But even with the invention of writing and the production of books, the oral dimension of language has been predominant in most societies. What does it mean for a culture to rely on oral transmission? How does a civilization change when writing becomes part of the culture? What is the meaning of authorship? In this seminar, we will explore the nature of oral traditions, what it means for a culture to have a primarily oral literature, and the complex relationships between orality and literacy. We will look at theories of orality and literacy from the disciplines of folklore, anthropology, the history of religion, and comparative literature.

SPA/MUS 2208.22/7780.22 Andean Music Ensemble (1 cr. course. No language or music experience necessary)
Michelle Wibbelsman
Monday 5:30 - 7:35 PM
This course is specifically designed to use performance as pedagogy—in this case, music making as an entry point into learning about language and culture. Students learn how to play and perform music from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina; sing in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara; explore Andean musical and performance aesthetics; and learn about the cultural background and social significance of the songs.We will explore various genres including the Peruvian huayno, the Ecuadorian sanjuanito, Bolivian sikuriadas (panpipes ensemble tunes) and tarkeadas (wooden flute ensemble tunes), and a variety of other Andean genres. We will all have a chance to experience instruments including zampoñas or sikuris (Andean panpipes), tarkas (Bolivian festival flutes), quenas/kenas (notched mouthpiece flutes), charangos (Andean syncretic string instruments), guitars, bombo (Andean bass drum), and chakchas (Goat hooves rattles).

No auditions and no requirements for prior musical experience or language proficiency. Our repertoire changes each semester. You can repeat enrollment in this 1 cr/hr. course up to a maximum of 10 credit hours. This course counts toward the ensemble requirement within certain degree programs in the School of Music, toward the interdisciplinary Minor in Andean and Amazonian Studies, the Quechua FLAS Fellowship course requirement, and as pre-major GE level courses in support of the major program for the LatinX major concentration. *Please be sure to sign up for 1 credit hour. Learn more about the Andean Music Ensemble at OSU, see videos and listen to our recordings on the SPPO website [http://This course is specifically designed to use performance as pedagogy—in this case, music making as an entry point into learning about language and culture. Students learn how to play and perform music from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina; sing in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara; explore Andean musical and performance aesthetics; and learn about the cultural background and social significance of the songs.We will explore various genres including the Peruvian huayno, the Ecuadorian sanjuanito, Bolivian sikuriadas (panpipes ensemble tunes) and tarkeadas (wooden flute ensemble tunes), and a variety of other Andean genres. We will all have a chance to experience instruments including zampoñas or sikuris (Andean panpipes), tarkas (Bolivian festival flutes), quenas/kenas (notched mouthpiece flutes), charangos (Andean syncretic string instruments), guitars, bombo (Andean bass drum), and chakchas (Goat hooves rattles).No auditions and no requirements for prior musical experience or language proficiency. Our repertoire changes each semester. You can repeat enrollment in this course up to a maximum of 10 credit hours. This course counts toward the ensemble requirement within certain degree programs in the School of Music, toward the interdisciplinary Minor in Andean and Amazonian Studies, the Quechua FLAS Fellowship course requirement, and as pre-major GE level courses in support of the major program for the LatinX major concentration. *Please be sure to sign up for 1 credit hour.Learn more about the Andean Music Ensemble at OSU, see videos and listen to our recordings on the SPPO website https://sppo.osu.edu/undergraduate/andean-music-ensemble.]https://sppo.osu.edu/undergraduate/andean-music-ensemble.

SPA 4515 Andean Art, Culture and Society (taught in English)
Michelle Wibblesman
Tuesday / Thursday 2:20 - 3:40 PM
This course on Andean and Amazonian art, culture and society will give you an informed perspective on the variety and diversity of artistic traditions in the Andes and Amazonian from Pre-Columbian times to Contemporary era. We will explore the role art plays in the historical and contemporary formation of the Latin American societies; how art contributes critical social commentary about cultural, social, economic and political reality at the local, regional, national and transnational levels; and how artists, artisans and artistic movements have influenced their respective societies in important ways. We will begin with broad questions about art; art categories and how they speak to power; issues of appropriation, collection, representation and revalorization of artistic traditions. After that the course will progress along a historical timeline, beginning with a study and appreciation of Pre-Columbian art; Conquest, contact and colonial context; the power of artistic images in the period of nation-building; resurgence of indigenous art; contemporary Andean and Amazonian societies and artists.

We will touch on tri-ethnic artistic heritage; artistic expression, aesthetics and identity; art and culture; symbolism; artistic syncretism; the politics of representation including aspects of museum studies and curatorial practices; art as political and social force; art as alternative literacy and historiography; migration and cosmopolitanism; social change and globalization. Over the course of the semester we will develop an ability to appreciate and analyze Andean and Amazonian artistic traditions in their cultural and historical context.

Scandinavian 5251: Icelandic Saga
Merrill Kaplan
Tuesday / Thursday 9:35 - 10:55 AM
Revenge is the engine of Iceland’s most famous literature: the Sagas. These medieval texts describe a Viking Age society on the western edge of Europe, just beyond the reach of kings, in which honor is the main currency and insult can have deadly consequences. Unforgettable characters clash in these intricately plotted stories, and a pithy verse or a legal stratagem may overmatch even a steel axe. The class will consider the workings and failings of blood feud as a violence limiting system, the oblique influence of women in a male-dominated society, the lean literary art of Saga prose, and more. Students will get to know a distant society with unexpected relevance to our own and learn how to analyze, interpret, and enjoy Saga literature.

There are no prerequisites. Taught in English.