Comparable Work - Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles about Digital Folklore

Primary Text: 

Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World. Ed. Trevor Blank. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2009.  

Suggested to me by Dr. Eric Eliason. The introduction by Blank himself is great and the articles inside are a good sampling of what kinds of things folklorists are looking at on the internet. 

Early Works:

Dorst, John. "Tags and Burners, Cycles and Networks: Folklore in the Telectronic Age." Journal of Folklore Research. 27.3 (1990): 179-190. Web.
Sent to me by Lynne McNeill and suggested as background knowledge of my subject. 

Howard, Robert Glenn. "Electronic Hybridity:  The Persistent Processes of the Vernacular Web." Journal of American Folklore. 121 (2008): 192-218. Web.
Sent to me by Lynne McNeill and suggested as background knowledge of my subject. 

Nothing Makes My Day like Success with Social Proof

I wrote Lynne McNeill, the folklore professor at USU that Dr. Eliason suggested to me as a good person to contact about Digital Folklore, last night and she responded this morning! She was amazingly helpful! It has totally renewed my interest in and excitement for my subject, which was flagging after my muse and inspiration left me to myself last night while trying to rewrite my submission.

I told her the direction I am heading in (to advocate the remix culture of the internet being the perfect venue for both the dissemination of existing traditions/lore and the creation of new genres of folklore and thus requiring more attention from folkloristics) and she confirmed that I'm heading in the right directions, saying: "Right now, your question of remixing is a good one--not only are traditional forms of folklore being revived on the Internet, but new forms, like image macros and memes, and coming to prevalence.  There's not much general writing about it all yet--lots of conference papers and lots of individual case studies as articles and book chapters, but no prevailing work on it other that Trevor's book."

I asked her to point me in the right direction as far as sources for my research of folklore on the internet and methodology for studying Internet folklore, and told her what sources I had already found. She confirmed that I had "found many of the main resources out there" and gave me additional direction. She not only recommended a book and certain articles, but also attached PDF copies of those articles to the email! Talk about helpful! (and of course, I sent her a huge thank you email right back).

American Folklore Society Annual Conference Submission?

I'm looking around for conferences I could submit my paper to. I'm still in the process of redirectioning and repurposing my paper, so I haven't yet written an abstract. I'm just looking for an audience for when I do. 

Missed Opportunities:

I just missed the boat for the Western States Folklore Society annual conference. It's being held the day I graduate (April 20th) in CA, but abstracts were due back in February and it costs a fee just to submit. It's too bad because they were accepting student papers, and I would have loved to aim for something like this. I also just missed the Folk Alliance International conference which took place at the end of February, but I couldn't find any information about paper submissions anyways. There is a Folklore and Fantasy Conference being held in the UK on April 15th. I missed the deadline for that in late January, but I think it would've been a great audience for my subject. I might still write them and see if my topic would've even been interesting to them (just by asking if they take late submissions). Another conference I would've loved to have presented at is WKU's student research conference which seems much less intimidating to me than others, but again the deadline was in February and the conference is this Saturday.  

Major Possibility: The American Folklore Society Annual Conference

I finally found a HUGE conference who's deadline hasn't passed though! The American Folklore Society, or the AFS, produces an annual meeting each October that brings together more than 700 folklorists from around the world to exchange work and ideas, and to create and strengthen friendships and working relationships. This year's conference will be held on October 24-27 at the historic Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year's theme: "The Continuity and Creativity of Culture" is perfect for my paper's topic! I can challenge the assumption implied in the theme's description that the "disruption" of "cultural continuity... threaten[s] well-being and long-standing social interactions" by talking about online culture's ability to enhance and further relationships and social interactions through the transmission of folklore. 

If I choose to submit to this conference, I have till March 31st to solidify my direction, do my social research, finish my paper and make sure that it follows the guidelines set for submissions, write both a 500 word abstract and a 100 word abstract and there is a registration fee of $95 (not to mention, if my paper was actually selected, travel costs to get to New Orleans in October - though there are some grants I could apply for). I would be informed by June 1st, if my paper was accepted. It's a tad intimidating though... Do you guys think I should go for it? 

(Oh and just as a reminder to myself, there are more folklore resources I need to remain aware of here)