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Folk Festival Courses in American Studies

Courses oriented around the New Jersey Folk Festival count towards the American Studies department’s new Curation and Cultural Programming certificate program. Our upcoming courses related to the festival program are listed below, along with the themes that will guide the development of festival programs in upcoming years. Students from all majors are welcome, and we encourage students with specific skills or interests in the themes of the festival courses to participate. We need people from Art, Business, Journalism, Landscape Architecture, Graphic Design, Music, History, and of course American Studies and more! The courses listed below are not the only courses that count towards the Certificate in Curation and Cultural Programming. The courses described here are, however, directly related to participation in festival programs and events.

Festival Themes 2023-2027

From 2022 through 2027, festival-related courses will address several themes:

  1. “Garden State: Cultures of Cultivation” Class projects in Fall 2022 and Fall 2023 will start research and planning for this theme, with programs and events culminating in the Festival Management classes held in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024.
  2. “New Directions in Folk” is our ongoing slate of programs that feature singer-songwriters addressing social issues and contemporary and avant-garde interpretations of traditional genres.
  3. “50th Anniversary” We will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the New Jersey Folk Festival in 2025! Programs and outreach to connect with 50 years of students, community members, and artists will be part of our work in the 2024-2025 school year.
  4. “Stages of Translation” We will be working with the Lives in Translation program at Rutgers Newark to explore the ways that multi-lingual experiences contribute to the cultural diversity and creative expression of New Jersey communities in 2024-2027

Scheduled Courses

Spring 2024 – AMST 450: Seminar in Folk Festival Management

Mondays 5:40-8:40pm; Dr. Maria Kennedy

Apply Here for Seminar in Folk Festival Management Internship

A unique part of our festival’s mission is its commitment to training students in public arts and humanities management. The New Jersey Folk Festival has been run with significant student contributions since its founding in 1975, and it has had a credit-bearing course in the Department of American Studies at Rutgers University New Brunswick for much of its existence. Students learn key skills in public programming and are a core part of planning and executing the festival’s research, logistics, and events. See www.njfolkfest.org for more info.

We seek student interns for the festival team who are interested in exhibit design, podcasting, stage management, logistics and production, finance and fundraising, vendor management, public relations, graphic/web design, photography, curatorial and public program management, and arts education. All majors are encouraged to apply. There are no prerequisites, but students must submit an application and attend an interview.

Time Commitment: As with other internship courses, students should expect to attend a regular class meeting as well as other work hours and events throughout the semester. Class meetings are on Mondays from 5:40-8:40pm on the Douglass Campus. These class meeting times will be modified as needed to accommodate the other commitments of the course, such as: 1) Students should also expect to commit to a minimum of three hours of work per week in the Folk Festival Office in Ruth Adams Building at hours to be determined according to their availability. 2) Some additional performance and event commitments on evenings and weekends are required 3) The full day of the New Jersey Folk Festival on Rutgers Day, the last Saturday of April, is required. (April 27, 2024)

To apply: Please fill out and submit the linked form below. Applications are accepted through the beginning of the spring semesters. Apply early to secure the position you are most interested in. Once you have submitted an application, you will be called for an interview. You can email Dr. Kennedy to discuss the internship or ask any questions about the course you may have: maria.kennedy@rutgers.edu

Folk Festival Management Seminar Application: Click here. Deadline: Rolling applications until the beginning of the semester.

For questions about the internship class or application process, contact Co-Director Dr. Maria Kennedy at maria.kennedy@rutgers.edu

Other Festival-Related Courses

Fall 2023 – AMST 263: American Folklore, Dr. Maria Kennedy

American Folklore fulfills Core Course requirements for AHo and AHp. American Folklore is a survey of folk cultures, traditional communities, and their artistic genres in North America. Students learn principles of ethnographic documentation and produce a culminating documentation project. Students who complete this course gain skills that are transferable for more advanced work in the Cultural Media Production and Seminar in Folk Festival Management courses.

Fall 2023 – AMST 389: Junior Seminar: Cultural Media Production, Dr. Maria Kennedy

Building on the creation of the New Jersey Folk Podcast, originally born as a multimedia programming option within the Festival Management course, this course focuses on audio story-telling as a narrative form, fulling a writing requirement for students across the university. We will introduce principles of ethnographic fieldwork, audio recording, documentation, and story-telling. Students create a short podcast episode on topics of their choosing related to the festival programs as their primary course project. Students who complete this course may apply to be on the New Jersey Folk Podcast production team as part of the Seminar in Folk Festival Management. See examples here: https://www.njfolkfest.org/podcast/

Not Currently Scheduled – AMST 449: Principles of Folk Festival Management, Dr. Maria Kennedy

This course looks at the history and theory of festival as a cultural event, business practice, and social experiment. Student gain theoretical competence in understanding the significance of festival events while also preparing preliminary plans for the Folk Festival in the spring semester. Students will plan and present a small concert as they gain skills in event management in preparation for the larger events of the spring. Students who wish to take a leadership role in the spring semester Seminar in Folk Festival Management course are required to take this course in the fall.