Tales of Contact and Change:
Traditional Stories of Immigration

November 11, 12 & 13, 2004
The Pyle Center in Madison, Wisconsin
Free and open to the public

Schedule of Events

Thursday, November 11
6:00 p.m. Reception
7:00 p.m. Keynote Address
To Be or Not To Be Eaten: The Survival of Traditional Storytelling (Jack Zipes)

Friday, November 12
8:30–9:00 Introductory remarks (Mark Louden)
9:00–10:30 Panel Discussion: Stories and the Preservation of Languages and Dialects
(Mark Louden, Rick March, Earl Otchingwanigan, Rand Valentine)
10:30–10:45 Break
10:45–12:15 Presentations
  1. How DARE Can Help You Understand and Appreciate
Storytelling and Folklore (August Rubrecht)
2. Special English for Special Purposes: The Cultural
Relevance of German-American Literary Dialect (Holger Kersten)
12:15–1:30 Lunch Break
1:30–3:00 Panel Discussion: Contact and Cultural Adaptation in Traditional Stories
(Itzik Gottesman, Jeffrey Lewis, Helmut Schmahl, Elaine Wynne)
3:15–5:00 Presentations
1. Memories of Contact: A Discussion of the Earliest Recorded Memories of Contact Among the Ojibwe and the Cree (Theresa Schenck)
2. Pomeranians in the Sugarbush: The Low German Immigrant Experience in Alfred Ira’s Novels (Helmut Schmahl)
3. Storytelling in a Multicultural Society or Preserving Tradition? Immigrant Storytellers in Germany (Kathrin Pöge–Alder)
7:00–9:00 p.m. Story Concert: Stories of Cultural Contact
  Mai Zong Vue (Hmong Stories of Cultural Adaptation)
Jeffrey Lewis (Stories of African–American Migration within the United States)
Elaine Wynne (Stories from the Minnesota Frontier: A Northern European Immigrant Community and Its Interface with People from the Red Lake Indian Reservation)
Mark Wagler (Stories of Growing Up Deitsch)
Moderator: Rick March

Saturday, November 13

8:30–10:00
 Panel Discussion: Children Learning from Stories (Elfriede Haese, Larry Johnson, Mark Wagler, Jack Zipes)

10:00–10:15
 Break
10:15–12:00
Presentations
  1. Streetwise: New Words and New Usage from South Side Chicago Teens (John Berquist)
2. An Egyptian Tomb, a Mbuti Myth, a Xhosa Epic, and an Appointment in Havana: A Storytelling Odyssey (Harold Scheub)
12:00–1:30
Lunch
1:30–3:00
 Panel Discussion: Stories, Language and Ethnic Identity (Cora Lee Kluge, James P. Leary, Earl Otchingwanigan, August Rubrecht, Mai Zong Vue)
3:00–3:15
 Break
3:15–4:45
 Presentations
  1. Narratives from the Midwest in Yiddish Literature (Itzik Gottesman)
2. European Folk Culture in the Fiction of the New World: The Letter–based Novel “Jürnjakob Swehn Travels to America” (Christoph Schmitt)
7:00–9:00 p.m.
 Story Concert: Community and Humor in Stories
  Earl Otchingwanigan (Ojibwe Stories, Puns and Jokes)
Larry Johnson (Stories and Jokes from a Swedish–American Community)
Elfriede Haese (German Tavern Stories from Milwaukee)
August Rubrecht (Stories in the Ozark Tradition)
John Berquist (Stories and Folk Songs from the Iron Range)
Moderator: Mark Wagler

Complete list of storytellers and scholars | Conference Report | Lecture abstracts
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