Welcome to the folklore blog of Paul Cowdell, currently Co-I at the University of Hertfordshire for an AHRC-funded network 'Folklore Without Borders' on equality, diversity and inclusion in UK folkloristics. I'll post here details of ongoing research, bits and pieces from previous fieldwork, items of news, and anything else that seems to fit.
I got interested in folklore research while working as an actor/facilitator in community theatre. I was initially interested in folk song, which remains my abiding love, but I'm easily persuaded that all aspects of folklife are fascinating and worthy of study.
I took an MA in Folklore and Cultural Tradition at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition (NATCECT) at the University of Sheffield, graduating with a Distinction for my Dissertation on 'Traditional Song in Social Context: A Study of Romney Marsh'. I won the Folklore Society's President's Prize in 2006 for an essay on dating an unpublished agricultural protest song in the Francis Collinson folk song collection. Having done fieldwork for the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival 2007, I went over to Washington DC to work there as a presenter. I have continued to do presentation work, and have made regular appearances on radio discussing aspects of folklore.
I completed a PhD at the University of Hertfordshire, looking at contemporary belief in ghosts. The thesis is available online here. I am now a Visiting Research Fellow in Folklore at the University of Hertfordshire, and a serving Council member of the Folklore Society.
You can drop me a line at paul.cowdell AT talk21.com (@ replaces AT)
I seem to remember this one at school too, certainly in the early 60's.
ReplyDeleteWhere was that?
ReplyDeleteGreat reading your bloog post
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