Water Lore: An Elemental Approach to Folklore and Mythology

How might water illuminate our ties to place, community, belief, and the expressive traditions in our lives, as we creatively reimagine the past in service of the present and future? A focus on the intersections of water and folklore opens space to explore the intersections of several topics of interest to folklorists, including oral tradition, memory, ritual, spirituality and belief, materiality and vernacular infrastructures, cognition, everyday lifeways, water sovereignty, community-based care, and public facing work with community partners, especially as these topics respond to the emergent, colliding crises of our present. This symposium features speakers from the Harvard community and beyond, with keynote lectures by Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby (University of Kentucky) and Laura Orleans (New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center).