Happy to be featured as one of the faces of Penn State in the university’s outreach campaign. Click here to see the story and image. Image was taken in my office, stuffed as you can tell with technology, books, movies, and posters. Come visit!
Congratulations to David J. Puglia, doctoral candidate in American Studies at Penn State Harrisburg (and my advisee) on the publication of South Central Pennsylvania Legends and Lore with History Press. The book offers a full history of the region, from the folkways of the Pennsylvania Dutch to the rocky relations between German and English settlers and local tribes. Puglia’s work reveals lore while exploring regional legends like that of the wizard of Cumberland County, the headless ghost that roams the back roads of Schuylkill County, the powwow practitioners of York County, and the Hummelstown hermit lingering in Indian Echo Caverns.
Puglia has worked with the Western Kentucky Folklife Archives, the National Park Service, and the Archives of Pennsylvania Folklife and Ethnography. His research interests include American legend and rumor and folklife ethnography.
Click here for webcast of Simon Bronner delivering Benjamin Botkin Memorial Lecture at Library of Congress on Campus Traditions. Introduced by American Folklife Center Director Betsy Peterson.
Graduate Dean Peter Idowu with Awardee Professor Simon Bronner
Dr. Simon Bronner, Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore at Penn State Harrisburg, received the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) Graduate Faculty Teaching Award, “designed to identify excellence and creativity in curriculum development and implementation and graduate education at the master’s and doctoral levels,” at the organization’s annual meeting, April 12 in New Brunswick, NJ.
Dr. Bronner’s award is for doctoral level teaching. He has previously been honored for his teaching and program development with the Mary Turpie Prize from the American Studies Association, and the Penn State Harrisburg Provost’s Teaching Award and James Jordan Award for Teaching Excellence.
Chair of the American studies program, Bronner is director of the doctoral program in American studies and and graduate certificate in heritage and museum practice. He teaches a wide range of classes at the graduate and undergraduate levels on topics including: American studies theory and method, popular culture and folklife, culture and aging, Jewish studies, public heritage, and consumer culture.
Bronner, of Harrisburg, is the author or editor of more than 30 books on folklore, the formation of American history and culture, and Jewish studies. He has been invited to speak on his research and to consult other American studies programs across the United States and abroad.
NAGS is one of four regional affiliates of the Council of Graduate Schools. Founded in 1975, it draws membership from eleven states, the District of Columbia, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec.