Perspectives on women’s contributions to folk song, folklore, and cultural traditions.

9 June 2018
University of Sussex

Women have always been central to the study and practice of folklore, arts and cultural traditions – as tradition bearers, performers, authors, collectors, storytellers and scholars. 

However, their contribution hasn’t always received the recognition it deserves; this symposium aimed to redress the balance. 

This was a one-day interdisciplinary conference celebrating and interrogating the role that women have played in folk song, folklore, and cultural traditions – as tradition bearers, performers, authors, collectors, storytellers and scholars - through presentations and papers across a variety of topics and from historical, contemporary, and future perspectives.

Keynote speaker: Lucy Neal (great great niece of Mary Neal CBE)

For the full programme click here.

This conference was co-presented by Sussex Traditions, The Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research (University of Sussex), and The English Folk Dance & Song Society, and supported by The Centre for Memories, Narratives and Histories (Brighton University), and Sussex University’s Music Department.

See impressions of the day here:

Women in the Folk conference 9 June 2018, photos by Tunde_Alabi-Hundeyin