Published: October 29, 2009 10:41 pm         

A sense of place will introduce Hoosiers to new location, ideas

TERRE HAUTE — The Hoosier Folklore Society, Traditional Arts Indiana, The Indiana State University departments of English and history, the Indiana State University Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana University and the Brown County Public Library are helping sponsor upcoming events related to folklore, local history and a sense of place.

Utah folklorist William A. “Bert” Wilson, author of the book “The Marrow of Human Existence,” will deliver a Joseph S. Schick lecture in ISU’s Root Hall Room A264, at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 6. Refreshments will follow the lecture.

Wilson will talk about the Finnish epic work The Kalevala, and its role in shaping Finnish nationalism. The title of his talk will be “‘Let us therefore be Finns’: Shifting Ideological Interpretations of the Finnish National Epic, the Kalevala.”

The Hoosier Folklore Society will conduct its annual meeting at the Brown County Public Library at 205 Locust Lane, Nashville, on Nov. 7.

The theme of this year’s meeting is “Alternative Perspectives on Place: The Intersection of Folklore and History.” Presenters will talk about topics ranging from Superman and the American myth to the play-party in Indiana. Wilson will be the plenary speaker. His talk, which draws on his interviews with an Idaho farmwoman, is titled “’I Had to Wear That Same Dress All Year’: The Importance of Family Narratives in Community Studies.”

The day-long events begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 5 p.m. with a reception at the Center for Folk Traditions in Nashville. Indiana musician Steve Dickey and his friends will provide music at the reception.

Tom Roznowski and Scott Russell Sanders will be the featured speakers for an open discussion at the Indiana State University Cunningham Memorial Library on Nov. 13. Their topic will be “Writing about the Sense of Place.” The event will begin at 3:30 p.m., and light refreshments will follow.

Also on Nov. 13, the pair will give an evening presentation, “Two Gentlemen from Indiana Consider the Meaning of Home,” in the Clabber Girl Museum at 900 Wabash Ave. Doors will open at 7 p.m., and the event will begin at 7:30.

Terre Haute is using this occasion to celebrate the publication of Tom Roznowski’s new book, “An American Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana, 1927” (Indiana University Press). Scott Russell Sanders, an internationally acclaimed essayist and novelist, will join Roznowski, drawing on his extensive writings about a sense of place. Copies of “An American Hometown” and of Scott Sanders’ latest book, “A Conservationist Manifesto” (Indiana University Press), will be available for purchase. A dessert and coffee reception, provided by Clabber Girl, will follow the presentation.

For more information about these free events, e-mail hoosierfolklore@gmail.com or check the Hoosier Folklore Society Web site, accessed through the ISU Department of English Web site at

www.indstate.edu/english.