SUBJECT: Lorefest Call for Papers

Lorefest – Oct 29-Nov 01, 2025. Lorefest Conference 9am-5pm, Nov 01, 2025, Texas A&M University,

College Station, TX.

Lorefest is an annual festival combining scholarly research and creative practice

inspired by local and “glocal” (i.e. globally-inspired, locally-rooted) folklore. It brings together

the Texas A&M student body, their family and friends, and local Bryan/College Station

communities culminating in a four-day event in late October/early November. Its organizers

are professors, students, and local business owners working together to realize five days of

creative programming, this year including wrestling, folksongs, a live dramatized storytelling,

video gaming, a ghost walk, dance performances, and more. Existing folklore, including oral

histories, stories and artifacts will be collected, preserved and made available alongside new

works by students and local artists, for members of the public and future generations.

Lorefest also includes a one-day symposium on Saturday, November 1st, 2025,

inviting discourse that brings together scholarly research and community interaction, focusing

on folklore studies, creative expression, and collaborative opportunities for undergraduates,

graduates, faculty, professionals, and anyone with an interest in folklore and the local cultures

through which it communicates.

This year’s themes are multiculturalism, animal-themes and motifs, and familial

folklore, but the conference is not limited to these themes alone. We’re especially interested in

presentations that center around performance and practice-as-research. However, any relevant

topic will be considered. Some suggested topics include:

African American Folklore

Latinx Folklore

Preservation of Folklore

Folklore as Creative Inspiration

Performance Ethnography

Animal-themed Folklore

Glocal Folklore

University-themed Folklore (any university)

Participants should expect 20 mins for presentations plus a Q&A session as part

of the panel. In-person or Zoom presentations can be accommodated. To join us for the

Lorefest conference, please send an abstract with a maximum of 300 words for papers, panels,

or performances to Rich Cooper (rcooper1@tamu.edu) by