Felicia McMahon, research associate professor in the Department of Anthropology in
Syracuse University's Maxwell School and instructor in The Renee Crown University
Honors Program, has been awarded the 2008 Chicago Folklore Prize by the
American Folklore Society for her book "Not Just Child's Play: Emerging Tradition
and the Lost Boys of Sudan" (University Press of Mississippi, 2007).
The Chicago Folklore Prize is one of six major prizes presented annually by the
American Folklore Society to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of
folklore. First awarded in 1928, the prize, presented jointly with the University of
Chicago, is the oldest international award recognizing excellence in folklore
scholarship; it is awarded to author(s) of the best book-length work of folklore
scholarship for the year.
McMahon's book is a fully theorized first-person narrative by a folklorist who,
mindful of the cultural risks involved, has worked for several years with members of
a culturally endangered group, Sudanese DiDinga war refugees who relocated to the
United States-"The Lost Boys." Though now grown, the Lost Boys were never
properly initiated into manhood according to tribal custom and so are caught in a
state of cultural childhood. McMahon's work with the group in western New York
has been in large measure devoted to helping the refugees encompass that loss
through recovery of remembered tribal dance and ritual enacted in public
performances.
The American Folklore Society is an association of people who study and
communicate knowledge about folklore throughout the world. The society's more
than 2,200 members and subscribers are scholars, teachers and libraries at colleges
and universities; professionals in arts and cultural organizations; and community
members involved in folklore work. Further information about the society is available
at http://www.afsnet.org/index.cfm.
