ISFNR Membership

Dear Colleagues,

During my term as chair of the Membership Committee, it has been a pleasure to welcome thirty-one new members to the ISFNR. Our new colleagues include folk-narrative specialists from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany/New Zealand, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Their involvement in our organization strengthens not only the ISFNR but also the disciplines of folkloristics and narrative studies. As per our statutes, the official announcement of new members will be made at the next ISFNR General Assembly.

I’d like to thank the Executive Committee of the ISFNR for showing vision and flexibility in making it possible for interested scholars to join our organization in the time between conferences. Based on the materials that the Membership Committee (myself and Gabriela Kiliánová) presents to the Executive Board, we proceed to an e-mail vote, and the process has been running quite smoothly.

There is one more change. Those who are interested in joining the ISFNR can submit materials at any point during the year, but they should be aware that the Board will consider nominations/applications twice a year (May and November). Nominees can thus expect to hear back either in June or in December. In addition to making the procedures clearer to nominees, this timetable also regularizes the tasks of the Membership Committee and Secretary; it also makes it possible for the new members’ names to be announced in the ISFNR newsletters. (We shall add the information about this timetable to the Nomination Form.)

Let me end by encouraging all of us to let other scholars who work with narrative and folklore know about the International Society for Folk Narrative Research. Or, if you are one of our colleagues who has attended ISFNR meetings but never joined our Society, please consider doing so in 2008. Not only do we have a fabulous conference coming up in Athens in 2009. It is now easy to join the ISFNR, and there are some clear benefits to doing so—including the Newsletter.

As for the membership process, the nomination form is online and, together with the nominee’s CV listing publications in folk-narrative research, it goes to me as the Membership Committee chair. Nominating members can send an e-mail to me in lieu of signatures. It is also helpful to send two recent abstracts that are representative of the applicant’s scholarship. (Any offprints, however, should be sent to our President who is building an ISFNR library/archive.) Once the vote takes place (June and December), new members will receive a message welcoming them to the Society and information about membership fees and benefits.

Please contact me directly if you have any ISFNR Membership questions. I wish you a productive and healthy new year, filled with good research and good stories!

Cristina Bacchilega,
Chair of the Membership Committee
E-mail: cbacchi@hawaii.edu