December 15, 2008
Written by C.N.
Contributors Needed for Asian American Folklore Encyclopedia
I received this email from an academic colleague asking for help in recruiting contributors for an encyclopedia on Asian American folklore:
I invite you to contribute to a project that I’m co-editing: the Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore (Greenwood Press, anticipated publication date sometime in 2010).
This is the first encyclopedia project of its kind and is inclusive of all the different cultural communities, including those that are often less represented in Asian American scholarship. We especially need contributors for the:
Burmese American, Chinese American, Hmong American, Indian American, Indonesian American, Japanese American, Khmer American, Korean American, Laotian American, Malaysian American, Mongolian American, Nepali American, Pacific Islanders American, Pakistani American, Punjabi American, Sri Lankan American, Thai American, Tibetan American, Vietnamese American, and other pan-Asian American sections, etc.
This project employs the broadest definition and discourse of folklore, and by extension contends that Asian American folklore, is, generally speaking, emerging. Asian American folklore consists of more than Asian mythologies that are narrated in Asian American families and communities; it is an Asian American way of life.
Asian American folklore encompasses the narrative history of Asians in America; it is the totality of Asian material culture, religious traditions, performances, celebrations, social relations, and so on, used to produce individual and collective Asian American identities. The remaining available headwords are broader than the title of this project suggest.
Click here for a list of remaining headwords that are still unassigned.
Best,
Jonathan H. X. Lee, Ph.D.
UCSB and California Lutheran University