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Research Awards and Fellowships

The American Folklife Center's competitive awards provide modest financial awards for scholars interested in working with ethnographic collection materials at the Library of Congress and for those individuals conducting fieldwork on topics related to the aims and scope of folklife research. Descriptions of these programs and awards follow.

Note: The deadline for the Alan Lomax Fellowship has been extended until April 4, 2011.

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Photograph of Gerald E. Parsons, Jr.
Gerald E. Parsons, Jr. in 1994. He founded the Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund for Ethnography at the Library of Congress in honor of his parents.
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The Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award

The Parsons Fund Committee for the Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund for Ethnography at the Library of Congress accepts applications annually. The next application period will be announced in January 2013. The committee is composed of the professional staff of the American Folklife Center. The total funds available for awards has varied from $800 to $3000. Historically the available amount has usually been divided among more than one recipient. The committee is composed of the professional staff of the American Folklife Center.

Purpose of Award and Eligibility

The purpose of the fund is to increase awareness of the ethnographic collections at the Library of Congress and to make the collections of primary ethnographic materials housed anywhere at the Library available to the needs and uses of those in the private sector. Awards may be made either to individuals or to organizations in support of specific projects.

Scope of Projects

Projects may lead to publication in media of all types, both commercial and non-commercial; underwrite new works of art, music, or fiction; involve academic research; contribute to the theoretical development of archival science; explore practical possibilities for processing ethnographic collections in the Archive of Folk Culture or elsewhere in the Library of Congress; develop new means of providing reference service; support student work; experiment with conservation techniques; and support ethnographic field research leading to new Library acquisitions.

Application Deadlines and Procedures

Please review application materials prior to submitting them to the Center to ensure that all the following elements are included. Incomplete applications will not be considered. In the past, successful applicants have consulted with AFC staff members prior to submitting their application.

All applicants and candidates for American Folklife Center awards who are not U.S. citizens must be visa and/or payment eligible in order to receive a Library of Congress award.  The rules and the variations for visa and payment eligibility are determined on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact the staff of the American Folklife Center for more information by email at folklife@loc.gov  or by telephone at 202-707-5510. 

The application consists of:

  • A narrative, 750-1500 words long, describing the proposed project and its potential products and audiences.
  • A budget and proposed time-frame in which to undertake research (typically for periods of one to three weeks). Flexibility built into a budget can be helpful to the committee in determining appropriate funding.
  • A resume or statement of previous experience.
  • Names, addresses, and phone numbers of three referees who can attest to the applicant's professional work and qualifications to undertake the project.
  • Please do not submit photographs, videotapes, CDs, or any physical material.

Because of security measures at the Library, US Mail and Federal Express may be delayed for over one month and sensitive media such as photographs may be damaged or destroyed. Therefore, we strongly recommend that applications be submitted as Word- , WordPerfect, or RTF-formatted documents or .pdf files, attached to an email with the subject line "[your last name] Parsons application." Address the email to the Parsons Fund Committee at: folklife@loc.gov. If you have any questions about procedures, please address your query to the Chair, Parsons Fund Committee at the email or fax listed above or call (202) 707-5510.

Past Recipients

2011

  • David Greely: in support of research on Cajun and Creole music.
  • Emily Kader: in support of research concerning Irish and Appalachian "Jack tales," to encompass similar traditions in the Caribbean and in African American communities in the American South.

2010

  • Dr. Cecilia Salvatore: in support of a project that will identify and evaluate the Library's institution-wide assets pertaining to the culture and history of Micronesia.
  • Mark Noonan: support of his project that will analyze regional and chronological variations in Sacred Harp singing practices utilizing the Center's extensive archival collections of shape note hymnals and recordings.

2009

  • Gregory Hansen: for a research project on the vernacular architecture and social history of Heishmans Mill, a 19th century grist mill located in central Pennsylvania.
  • Marion S. Jacobsen: for a research project focusing on the evolution and popularization of the piano accordion in America from 1920-1960, using the collections of the Library of Congress.

2008

  • Jocelyn Arem: for a research project focusing on the cultural impact of the 1960s folk revival movement, using the collections of the American Folklife Center.
  • Barbara Fertig: for a research project focusing on African American residents of coastal Georgia communities, using the collections of the American Folklife Center.
  • Cecilia Conway: for a research project focusing on the Beech Mountain, North Carolina collections at the American Folklife Center.

2007

  • Michael McCoyer: to support his research on levee camps and Mississippi Delta life in the early 20th century using the Coahoma County materials in the Alan Lomax Collection and other Library resources.
  • Kathleen Ryan: to support her research on "Propaganda, Memory and Oral History in World War II Female Veterans," using Veterans History Project materials and other Library resources.

2006

  • Eileen M. Condon: for research on Puerto Rican traditional music in Dutchess County, New York.
  • Sydney Hutchinson: to support doctoral work in ethnomusicology at New York University for a research project titled "Analysis of Musical Change in Dominican Merengue Típico".
  • Linda Goss: for research on African-American storytelling traditions.

2005

  • David Stanley: to research collection materials related to cowboy ballad performers, including correspondence, transcriptions, and ephemera in several Library Divisions.
  • David Hoffman: to conduct research on symposia, public hearings, position papers and other materials related to US national policy on the topic of indigenous rights and cultural and environmental conservation.

2004

  • Andrea Frierson-Toney: to research African-American traditional music from Gee's Bend, AL, in the Robert Sonkin Collection. Research on the performance tradition will be adapted into a theatrical production.

2003

2002

  • No award

2001

  • Barrett Golding: to support the creation of two public radio programs presenting music and stories from Florida using WPA-era material from the Archive's collections. This also included an interview with Stetson Kennedy, head of the WPA Florida project.
  • Nancy-Jean Seigel: to support her work researching, organizing, and adding to the files of the Helen Hartness Flanders Collection in the Archive of Folk Culture.
  • Mark Jackson: to support the creation and publication of a CD based on the music and spoken words of John Handcox, a sharecropper and member of the Arkansas-based Southern Tenant Farmer's Union who was recorded at the Library of Congress in 1937.

2000

  • Larry Polansky: to support research for the publication of work on folksong transcription and notation by the ethnographer Ruth Crawford Seeger.
  • Anne Laskey & Gail Needleman: to undertake research for educational music textbooks using folksong based on the Kodály method.

1999

  • Susan Lutz: to support for research on a documentary film entitled Sunday Dinner: Food, Land, and Free Time.
  • Yücel Demirer: to locate representations of Kurdish national identity in the Woodrow Wilson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

1998

1997

  • William T. Dargan: to fund for research project on African-American lining-out hymn performance.
  • Lucy Long: to support research on the Appalachian plucked dulcimer.

1996

  • Julia Bishop: to support research on The James Madison Carpenter Collection.

The Henry Reed Fund Award

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Photograph of Henry Reed
Henry Reed, fiddler. Photo by Karen Jabbour, ca. 1967.
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The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Henry Reed Fund for Folk Artists is awarded every other year. The next award period will begin in February 2014. In the recent past the maximum award amount has been about $2,000. The award may be split between more than one recipient.

The Henry Reed Fund was first awarded in 2004, and was established in honor of old-time fiddler Henry Reed, with an initial gift from founding AFC director and fiddler Alan Jabbour. The purpose of the fund is to provide support for activities directly involving folk artists, especially when the activities reflect, draw upon, or strengthen the collections of the American Folklife Center. The life and work of Henry Reed is documented in the online collection "Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier." The Library's Today In History page for April 28th gives a short presentation about Henry Reed.

Projects and activities might include:

  • Payments to folk artists, their families, their descendants, or their cultural communities in connection with publication or dissemination of documents (audio recordings, manuscripts, photographs, etc.) in the American Folklife Center's collections.
  • Honoraria or reimbursement to folk artists for programs, such as concerts, workshops, or exhibitions, which feature those folk artists and their arts.
  • Programs honoring and celebrating folk artists for their cultural contributions.
  • Support for the costs of documenting distinguished folk artists and the acquisition of resulting documentation by the Library of Congress.

Application Deadline and Procedures:

All applicants and candidates for American Folklife Center awards who are not U.S. citizens must be visa and/or payment eligible in order to receive a Library of Congress award.  The rules and the variations for visa and payment eligibility are determined on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact the staff of the American Folklife Center for more information by email at folklife@loc.gov  or by telephone at 202-707-5510. 

Applicants for Henry Reed Fund awards should submit a 750-1500 word description of their proposed project, with a budget and schedule of project activities. AFC staff members are happy to discuss proposals with applicants prior to submission (see contact information below).

Applications should also include a résumé, artist bio, or statement of previous experience, and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references who are qualified to speak about the applicant's work.

Because of security measures at the Library, materials sent via the U.S. Postal Service or express-mail services may be significantly delayed, and sensitive media, such as CDs and photographs, may be damaged or destroyed. Therefore, we strongly recommend that applications only be submitted as Word- or WordPerfect-formatted documents or .pdf files, attached to an email with the subject line: "[your last name] Reed Fund application." Address the email to the Henry Reed Fund Committee at: folklife@loc.gov. You may also fax all materials to (202) 707-2076.

If you do wish to send supporting audio-visual materials, please pack them in a three-dimensional box (not a flat box) with a lightweight filler, and send it via a service that offers a tracking number, such as Federal Express, USPS Express Mail, or DHL. (Note: Supporting materials will NOT be returned to the applicants.) To mail these parcels, use the address below and mark "Fragile."

Library of Congress AFC 20540-4610
c/o American Folklife Center - Henry Reed Fund
9140 East Hampton Drive
Capital Heights, MD 20743-3809

If you have any questions about procedures, please address your query to the Reed Fund Committee at the email or fax listed above or call (202) 707-5510.

Past Recipients

2010

  • Mr. Jamie Weems of Ridgeland, Mississippi: in support of an innovative project to reunite local contra dance and old-time string band traditions unique to an under-documented area of Mississippi.

2008

  • Don Roy of Portland, Maine: in support of his project to create and print a book of fiddle tunes from his Maine Acadian family music heritage.

2006

  • Jeri Vaughn of Seattle, Washington: to support reunion concert appearances for old-time fiddle and guitar duo Robert and Lee Stripling in their home town of Kennedy, Alabama and to subsidize Vaughn's 30-minute documentary film of the brothers' reunion tour.

2004

  • Elizabeth LaPrelle of Rural Retreat, Virginia: to fund travel allowing this 16-year-old Appalachian ballad singer to perform and compete at music gatherings during the summer of 2004, and to surround herself with older singers from whom she could learn traditional songs, style, and aesthetics.

The Blanton Owen Fund Award

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Photograph of Blanton Owen
Blanton Owen, folklorist
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The Blanton Owen Fund Committee at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress accepts applications every other year. The next application period will be announced in January 2013. The award was established in 1999 in memory of folklorist Blanton Owen by his family and friends to support ethnographic field research and documentation in the United States, especially by young scholars and documentarians. Currently, this award is offered every other year. Historically the available amount has been about $1000 and may be split between more than one recipient.

All applicants and candidates for American Folklife Center awards who are not U.S. citizens must be visa and/or payment eligible in order to receive a Library of Congress award.  The rules and the variations for visa and payment eligibility are determined on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact the staff of the American Folklife Center for more information by email at folklife@loc.gov  or by telephone at 202-707-5510. 

The application and submission procedure is the same as for the Parsons Fund Award, detailed above, except email applications should be given the subject line "[your last name] Owen application."

For questions, contact the chair of the Blanton Owen Fund Committee at the American Folklife Center: (202) 707-5510; folklife@loc.gov; Fax (202) 707-2076.

Past Recipients of the Blanton Owen Fund Award

2011

  • Bradley Hanson: in support of his work to further document and study the cultural impact of the Tennessee Jamboree, a weekly radio barn dance program serving the communities of LaFollette  and Campbell Counties in Tennessee.

2009

  • Stephen J. Taylor: Mr. Taylor recorded oral history interviews with former residents of the barrier islands of Accomack and Northampton counties on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, in connection with a study of personal narratives of homecoming on Portsmouth Island, North Carolina

2007

  • Clifford Murphy: Mr. Murphy documented the traditions and expressions of Country and Western musicians in the state of Maine.
  • Karen N. Brewster: Ms. Brewster conducted an ethnography exploring ecology, belief and culture as expressed in found object folk art creations of Native Americans in the Lower Yukon River Valley.

2005

  • Sandra Grady: Ms Grady performed ethnographic fieldwork among Somali Bantu refugees being resettled in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Jaman Matthews: Mr. Matthews documented life in the Mississippi Delta in photographs and fieldnotes.
  • Carrie Leonard: Ms. Leonard documented Inupiaq life in Noorvik, Alaska, in photographs.

2001

  • Yolanda Hood: Ms. Hood performed ethnographic fieldwork among Nigerians living in Atlanta, Georgia.

Archie Green Fellowships

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Archie Green
Archie Green speaks at the American Folklife Center in 1978. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer.
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Archie Green Fellowship recipients to be announced on May 15, 2012.

The application period for the Archie Green Fellowships for 2012 has closed.  The next application period will be announced in February, 2013. Information about applications, including the 2012 schedule, is provided below.

Background

To honor the memory of Archie Green (1917-2009), a fellowship program has been established at the American Folklife Center. Green was a pioneering folklorist who championed the establishment of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. As a scholar, he documented and analyzed the culture and traditions of American workers, and encouraged others to do the same. The Archie Green Fellowships will support new research in this area, and will generate significant digital archival collections (audio recordings, photographs, videos, and fieldnotes), which will be preserved in the American Folklife Center archive and made available to researchers and the public

Program Description

The American Folklife Center will award up to three fellowships of up to $45,000 each, for the period July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013, which will support new, original, independent field research into the culture and traditions of American workers and/or occupational groups found within the United States. Applicants must submit proposals via email.

The original documentary materials generated during the course of each fellowship will become part of the American Folklife Center's Archie Green Community Documentation Collection. The American Folklife Center was established by Congress to support research and scholarship in American folklife and to preserve, support, revitalize, and disseminate American folk traditions. Materials in the Center's archive are available to researchers and the general public.

Application Requirements

To be eligible, projects must involve new, original research on, and documentation of, occupational culture. Applicants may include individuals, organizations or groups, but organizations and groups must select an individual representative to act as Fiscal Agent.  Individual applicants and Fiscal Agents must be U.S. Citizens.

Selection

Proposals for the Archie Green Fellowships will be evaluated by a committee composed of the Director of the American Folklife Center, the Chair of the American Folklife Center Board of Trustees, and an outside panelist.

Expectations

Persons wishing to submit applications must develop a project plan detailing the subject of the research and the methods of digital documentation to be used. Successful applicants must agree to provide the American Folklife Center with the original versions of documentary materials created during the course of the fellowship research.

All documentation must be in digital formats as outlined below. The cost of creating secondary copies may be factored into the applicants' research budgets. Fellows will submit completed informant releases and biographical data forms (provided by the Center) as well as electronic logs for audio/video recordings and still photographs. Fieldnotes describing research activities through the course of the project will be submitted in digital form. These materials will become part of the Archie Green Community Documentation Collection.

In order to strengthen our archives, in this grant round the American Folklife Center particularly encourages applications proposing research among Hispanic workers in the United States, occupations associated with urban America, and historically female occupations (e.g., teaching, nursing).

Fellowship recipients will submit a final report and financial accounting to the American Folklife Center upon completion of the fellowship.  Please note that applicants must select one individual to serve as Fiscal Agent for the project, and that indirect and overhead costs will not be supported. Awarded funds are dispersed only through electronic transfers (direct deposit), and awardees must be prepared to provide banking information as requested.

How to Apply

Applicants for the Archie Green Fellowships at the American Folklife Center should submit the following materials.

  • Cover sheet (example below)
  • Project Description (1-3 pages)
  • Project Budget, which, if necessary, may include the cost of purchasing professional-quality documentation equipment
  • List of documentation equipment to be used, including makes, models, and formats
  • Project Timeline
  • Statement of Agreement/Letter from occupational group to be documented, if appropriate
  • Résumés (for individuals and groups) or Organization Description (for nonprofit organizations)

The term of each fellowship will be limited to a period of one year and will be supported with funds up to $45,000.

Digital Document Requirements & Specifications:

All fellows must comply with the American Folklife Center/Library of Congress digital standards. Therefore, proposed documentation must meet the following specifications:

  • Digital audio: 96khz/24bit bwf (or .wav) file, or 44.1khz/16bit .wav file.
  • Digital video: high-resolution digital video format (consult with the American Folklife Center prior to submitting proposal)
  • Digital images: high-resolution digital images (consult with the American Folklife Center prior to submitting proposal)
  • Text files (for logs, fieldnotes, final report, etc.): Microsoft Word
  • Databases, spread sheets, etc.: consult with the American Folklife Center prior to submitting proposal

Applicants are strongly urged to consult with the American Folklife Center about equipment and format choices prior to submitting their application. For more information, contact Nancy Groce, 202-707-1744 / ngro@loc.gov

Application Process and Deadlines:

February 1, 2012:     Request for Proposals released by the American Folklife Center for 2012 Fellowships
   
March 16, 2012: 2012 Proposals due to the American Folklife Center
   
early-April, 2012: Adjudication
   
mid-April, 2012:  Awards announced
   
June 1, 2012: 2012 Fellowship begins and initial funds distributed

Grant Awards will be dispersed incrementally according to the following schedule:

Payment 1:  June 1, 2012 $20,000
Payment 2:  September 14, 2012 $20,000
Final payment following submission of materials $5,000

Submit Materials to:

  • Please email your submission, do not send via U.S. Postal Service.
  • Email to:  Archie Green Fellows Committee at ngro@loc.gov
  • Questions?  Call the American Folklife Center, Archie Green Fellowships, Nancy Groce,  202-707-1744; email: ngro@loc.gov

Fellowships Awarded to Date:

2011

  • Pat Jasper, director of the Houston Folklife and Traditional Arts Program at the Houston Arts Alliance: to document the diverse culture of work associated with the Houston port and ship channel.
  • William Westerman, Princeton University: to document the working lives of South Asian immigrant taxi drivers in New York City.
  • James Leary, University of Wisconsin, and labor historian Bucky Halker: in support of their study of the cultural traditions of ironworkers in America's Upper Midwest. They plan to create a variety of end products, including several documentary films.
  • Tanya D. Finchum and Juliana M. Nykolaiszyn, Oklahoma Oral History Research Program: to document, through oral history interviews, the occupational culture and traditions of the American "Big Top" circus in the small town of Hugo, Oklahoma.

2010

  • Professor Robert McCarl, Boise State University: to study the environmental ethics of different occupational groups in Idaho's Silver Valley, including three broad categories of workers: ecologically-focused occupations such as plant biologists, geologists and water-quality specialists; current-use occupations such as miners, loggers, and fishermen; and future-oriented occupations, such as preservationists, developers, clergy, and Coeur d'Alene tribal leaders. The original video, photographs, notes, and maps created through the project will be donated to the American Folklife Center's Archive, and copies will be donated to the local community.
  • Professor Nick Spitzer, University of New Orleans, and Dr. Maureen Loughran: to produce a special "Routes to Recovery" series of five two-hour radio programs, devoted to economic and social recovery across the United States, and focusing on workers in several occupational categories, including cowboys, automobile workers, and the building trades. The series will also focus on music and the arts as spiritual sustenance for survivors and as catalysts for recovery. The series will air in its entirety on American Routes,External Link and edited segments will be offered to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and other major news outlets. All original field recordings for the project will become part of the AFC archive.
  • Dr. Stephen Zeitlin, Director of City Lore,External Link The New York center for urban folk culture: to coordinate a team of folklorists and filmmakers in producing Heartland Passage, a documentary film about workers along the route of New York State's Erie Canal, including tugboat captains and engineers, machinists, harbormasters, drydock workers, and locktenders. The film will be created in high definition, and designed for public television; in addition, Zeitlin's team will create eight oral history modules for the website of Erie Canalway National Corridor, curriculum materials for K-12 teachers, and a collection of high-definition video and audio tape that will become part of the American Folklife Center's Archive.

The 2010 awardees presented talks on their research at the American Folklife Center's symposium Work and Transformation: Documenting Working Americans, December 6-7, 2010. Webcasts of these presentations are available via the symposium site.

Please copy, fill out, and include the cover sheet example below with your application.

ARCHIE GREEN FELLOWSHIP - 2012

APPLICANT (Organization or Individual):

TITLE OF PROJECT:

 

PROJECT DIRECTOR:

Name:

Street Address:

Primary Phone Number:                                                Additional Phone Number:

Email:                                                                           Fax:

 

PROJECT SUMMARY (100 words maximum):

 

 

FISCAL AGENT (if different from Project Director): 

Please note that applicants must select one individual to serve as the Fiscal Agent for the project. Awarded funds are dispersed only through direct-deposit electronic transfers, so the Fiscal Agent must be prepared to provide banking information as requested.
If this person is the same as the Project Director, check here:_________
If Fiscal Agent is different then Project Director, provide contact information, below:
Name:

Street Address:

Primary Phone Number:                                                Additional Phone Number:

Email: _____                                                                Fax:

 

 

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