Lore and Lunch

Lore and Lunch is an online monthly reading and discussion group led by members of the Contemporary Folklore Research Centre. Everyone is welcome: You don't have to be a centre member, no formal qualifications or academic background is needed - just an open attitude and interest in folklore studies. Attendance is flexible: come to as many or as few sessions as you like, depending on what suits you, or which topics interest you most. Don't worry if you haven't had time to read everything in detail, you are still welcome to join the discussion. Here is a link to the sign up sheet!

Our next meeting online is on 22 October 2025 when we'll be talking flags, flags and more flags with the paper:

Jaskulowski, K. (2016) The magic of the national flag. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39: 4, pp. 557-573

In addition you are also invited to watch this short video with a two-minute read from the Southbank Centre about the creation of the protest flag The Union Jill, a symbol of alternative Britain: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/magazine/union-jill-the-story-behind-a-symbol-of-protest-and-alternative-britain/

Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday 12 November 2025 1 - 2pm

Wondimu, H., Nasir, S. and Bayu, S. (2023) Exploring indigenous drama elements in Kurfewe, Gichame, and Weyeg traditional folk performances of the Gurage people, Ethiopia. Cogent Arts and Humanities, 10: 2, 2292366. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2023.2292366

Wednesday 17 December 2025 1 - 2pm

While Shepherds Watched: The hidden world of the South Yorkshire village carol sings. Radio 3: Sunday Feature, BBC Sounds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001thbn

Anyone interested in learning more about researching village carols is recommended this article exploring relationships between researchers and 'tradition bearers' in the Sheffield carols tradition:

Russell, I. (2006) Working with Tradition: Towards a Partnership Model of Fieldwork. Folklore, 117, pp. 15-32.

2024 - 2025 Semester 2 Readings

27 February 2025 - popular expressions of indigenous cultures

Martínez-Rivera, Mintzi Auanda. "‘De El Costumbre Al Rock’: Rock Indígena and Being Indigenous in 21st-Century México." Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 9, no. 3 (2014): 272-292.

17 April 2025 - Landscape and belief

Al-Qobbaj, A. A., & Marshall, D. J. (2024). Dwelling and healing with saints and jinn in the haunted landscapes of Palestine. Cultural Geographies, 31(3), 365-379.

26 June 2025 - Traditional song and the charts

FOLKLORE, MUSIC AND ME: MY CHART-TOPPING LULLABIES. OUTLOOK. BBC WORLD SERVICE, FRI 30 JUNE 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4qnt

2024 - 2025 Semester 1 Readings

17 October 2024 - Why we tell fairy tales

Zipes, Jack. "The changing function of the fairy tale." The lion and the unicorn 12, no. 2 (1988), pp.7-31.

28 November 2024 - Folklore's Queer history

Coward, Sacha (2024) ‘Radical Faeries’, in Queer As Folklore: The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters. London, Unbound, pp.38-48

19 December 2024 - Folklore and physical differences and dis/abilities

Ebenezersdóttir, E.Þ. and Stekkjastaur (2024) ‘Our Own Way of Walking: Reflecting Physical Difference in Icelandic Yule Tradition’, in P. Greenhill and J. Orme (eds.) Just Wonder: Shifting Perspectives in Tradition. Utah State University Press.

23 January 2025 - Blason Populaire and political mythmaking

Arkhipova, Alexandra, Daria Radchenko, and Anna Kirzyuk. "“Our Shmuck”: Russian Folklore about American Elections." Journal of American Folklore 133, no. 530 (2020): 452-470.

2023 - 2024 - Semester 2 Readings

22 February 2024: Week 1 - Visual ethnographies

Radice, M. (2023) Happy Yardi Gras! Playing with Carnival in New Orleans during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In, A. Beresin and J. Bishop (eds.) Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation. Open Book Publishers.

28 March 2024: Week 2 - What does it mean to 'fail' at fieldwork?

Lawrence, D. T. (2022) When We Blew It: Vulnerability, Trying, and Failure in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Journal of Folklore Research, 59 (2), 129-147.

21 May 2024: Week 3 - Community perspectives and biographical ethnography

Reith, S. (2008) Through the 'Eye of the Skull': Memory and Tradition in a Travelling Landscape. Cultural Analysis, 7, 77-106.

27 June 2024: Week 4 - Re-imagining and asserting identity through folk tradition

Podcast: Zakia Sewell (2020) My Albion: Episode 1, The Cuckoo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pffx

2023 -2024 - Semester 1 Readings

12 October 2023: Week 1 - The idea of 'community' in Folklore

Feintuch, B. (2001). Longing for Community. Western Folklore, 60 (2/3), 149 - 161.

23 November 2023: Week 2 - The concept of 'ostension' in Contemporary Legend research

Peck, A. (2015). At the Modems of Madness: The Slender Man, Ostension and the Digital Age. Contemporary Legend, 5, 14-37.

14 December 2023: Week 3 - Folklore and its relation to other disciplines

Paphitis, T. (2019) Folklore and Public Archaeology in the UK. Public Archaeology, 18 (3), 139-161.

23 January 2024: Week 4 - What can Folklore bring to understanding contemporary issues?

Goldstein, D. (2015) Vernacular Turns: Narrative, Local Knowledge, and the Changed Context of Folklore. Journal of American Folklore, 128 (508), 125-145.

2023 - Semester 2 Readings

9 March 2023: Week 1 - Introducing Folklore as a subject for study.

Houlbrook, C. (2014). The Mutability of Meaning: Contextualizing the Cumbrian Coin-Tree. Folklore, 125(1), 40–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43297732

5 April 2023: Week 2 - Looking at how folklore is understood and represented as a discipline, what it might mean to be a folklorist or to ‘take folklore seriously’.

Kitta, Andrea, Lynne S. McNeill, and Trevor J. Blank (2021) " Talking Folklore: Getting Others to Take the Discipline Seriously while Remaining a Serious Folklorist." Advancing Folkloristics, p. 202. (available online via library)

4 May 2023: Week 3 - Folklore and Calendar Custom and Ritual in the modern west

Bannister, Catherine. 2022) "Making a Modern May Queen: Guiding and the Gendering of Identity." In Scouting and Guiding in Britain: The Ritual Socialisation of Young People, pp. 107-127. Cham: Springer International Publishing. (available online via library)

1 June 2023: Week 4 - Tradition as a key concept in folklore - continuity and change…

Bronner, Simon J. (2000) “The Meanings of Tradition: An Introduction.” Western Folklore, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 87–104. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1500154.

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