Margaret Mills, Ohio State University (Professor Emerita)
How Stories Lodge in Lives
Mary Frere’s Old Deccan Days (1868) introduction to the storyteller, Anna Liberata deSouza, abundantly illustrates how the performer’s choices among traditional stories reflected specific...
In rural Malawi, it is rumored that sorcerers use special magic charms (mgoneko) to seduce women as they sleep at night. In 2005, fear rose to a high level when secondary school girls began reporting mass attacks. Anxious students asked, “Can girls contract AIDS from these attacks?” Even some older married women sleeping next to their husbands claimed to have been overcome by witches. These Malawian narratives speak to a gendered experience of helplessness and vulnerability, dramatize the media-fed notion of a battle between genders, reference international human rights...
Matt Kaplan (Science Correspondent, The Economist, and 2014-15 Knight Fellow, M.I.T.) will give a talk on "The Pathology of Werewolves and Vampires" on April 15 at 5.00, followed by refreshments, in The Kates Room, Warren House.
Liz Carlisle (Folklore & Mythology class of 2006) and David Oien will speak about the Lentil Underground, and Harvard University Dining Services will prepare a lentil tasting.
Henrik Williams (Uppsala University). Recently awarded the Rudbeck medal for his ground-breaking work in runology, Prof. Williams will discuss some perhaps unexpected human activities recorded in runic inscriptions.