Salons 2: Public Folklore, Heritage, and Social Justice

The “Social Justice” salons, organized by the Fellows of the American Folklore Society, spotlighted public folklore's rapidly evolving strategies for crisis intervention, where crises, whether political, epidemiological, or environmental, may be linked to underlying conditions of social inequality. Exploring how the skill sets and resources of folklorists can intersect with heritage frameworks to ameliorate forms of social injustice, participants delineated this emergent practice arena in the field. Discussions illuminated both the potential and perils of using heritage as a means of crisis intervention and healing.