MA Co-op Work Term Final Report Guidelines
The purpose of the work term report is to describe the work placement; to reflect on skills development; and to problematize and analyze one or more aspects of the work term addressing concepts relevant to current Public Folklore scholarship.
The report should consist of two sections, roughly equal in length. Section one provides a description of the work placement including the context of the placement, work assigned, folkloristic skills required and developed, and other competency development. Section two problematizes one or more aspects of the work term and addresses concepts relevant to current Public Folklore scholarship. The report should draw on readings encountered in your coursework and other scholarly publications (below). The expected length is 20 pages double-spaced (excluding images, figures and references).
The report should explore questions like:
- What did you do?
- What did you learn about your future as a public folklorist?
- In what ways does your work connect with (or differ from) concepts learned in your folklore courses so far?
- What can others interested in Public Folklore scholarship learn from your experience?
- What key issues relevant to the field of Public Folklore arose during your work term? How does contemporary scholarship in Public Folklore elucidate these issues?
A successful report will include a clearly written, detailed summary of the work place experience as well as thoughtful analysis that integrates aspects of the practical experience with issues arising in contemporary scholarship on public folklore.
Work term reports are graded by an Academic Staff Member in Co-operative Education and a Faculty Member from the Department of Folklore on the scale of Pass with Distinction, Pass or Fail.
Baron, Robert. 2016. “Public Folklore Dialogism and Critical Heritage Studies.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 22, no. 8: 588-606.
Baron, Robert and Nick Spitzer, eds. 2007. Public Folklore. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
Feintuch, Burt. 1988. The Conservation of Culture. Folklorists and the Public Sector. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press.
Guigne, Anna Kearney. 1996. "The Politics of Culture and Public Sector Folklore in Quebec: The Role of Laval University's Centre d'Etudes sur la Langue, les Arts et les Traditions Populaire des Francophones d'Amerique du Nord (CELAT) and I'Ethnologie Quebecois". Culture & Tradition 18: 5–22.
Jarvis, Dale Gilbert. 2014. "Reframing and Extending Tradition: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Public Folklore in Newfoundland and Labrador". Volkskunde 3: 361–377.
Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. (2017) “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1: 1–34.
LaSalle, Peter. 2017. “Conundrum: A Story about Reading.” New England Review 38, no. 1: 95–109. Project MUSE.
MacKinnon, Richard. 2016. “Heritage Conservation, UNESCO and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Eastern Canada.” Ethnologies 36, no. 1-2: 383-403.
Pérez, Ashley Hope. 2017. “Material Morality and the Logic of Degrees in Diderot’s Le neveu de Rameau.” Modern Philology 114, no. 4: 872–98.
Pocius, Gerald. 2014. "The Government of Canada and Intangible Cultural Heritage: An Excursion into Federal Domestic Policies and the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention." Ethnologies 36, no. 1–2: 63–92.
Silberman, Neil. 2014. “Changing Visions of Heritage Value: What Role Should the Experts Play?” Ethnologies 36, no. 1-2: 433–445.
Wells, Patricia Atkinson. 2006. "Public Folklore in the Twenty-First Century: New Challenges for the Discipline." Journal of American Folklore 119, no.471: 5-18.
Wells, Patricia Atkinson, ed. 2006. “Working for and with the Folk: Public Folklore in the Twenty-First Century.” Special issue of Journal of American Folklore 119, no.471:110-128.