Gregory Hansen, Professor of Folklore & English at Arkansas State University, recently served as one of the guest editors of the Missouri Folklore Society Journal. He and Michelle Stefano of the American Folklife Center compiled a special issue on Folklore and Heritage Studies for Volume 37, published retroactively for 2015. This issue was drawn largely from presentations initially made at a 2017 consortium sponsored by the U. S. Chapter of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies that was held at Arkansas State University. Hansen and Stefano worked with Felix Burgos, Rodrigo Chocano, and Jeremy Wells to coordinate the event that they titled Connecting (to) Heritage Studies in the U.S.

Along with presentations from the consortium, Hansen and Stefano developed the new publication by including entries on folklore and heritage by Barry Bergey and Ruth Hawkins, both of whom are native Missourians. The new publication is intended to be a festschrift honoring Barry’s work at the National Endowment for the Arts as well as a tribute to Ruth’s work with Heritage Studies at Arkansas State University. Hansen and Stefano contributed articles that explore ways to connect folklore to the wider heritage movement, and Hansen also included a photo essay to commemorate Hawkins’ contributions to developing heritage sites in eastern Arkansas.