Each year, with funding from the University of Oregon’s academic Folklore Program, OFN employs a recent graduate of their masters degree program for one term, providing paid employment, job experience and resume enhancement while the emerging professional seeks permanent employment. OFN was pleased to retain former Graduate Employee, Alina Mansfield, as this Summer’s Graduate Folklore Fellow. Mansfield recently helped write, produce and distribute our latest publication, Oregon Traditional Arts Apprenticeships Master Artists: 2012-2016 and has been actively updating OFN’s growing Oregon Culture Keeper’s Roster with traditional artists selected from our Gorge, Eastern Oregon and Portland/Metro folklife surveys.

Mansfield has a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, where she designed her own Folklore and Mythology major. A contributor to the Encyclopedia of Women’s Folklore and Folklife, Mansfield is currently researching Mardi Gras traditions in Mobile, Alabama and Biloxi, Mississippi. For her Master’s Terminal’s Project, she completed a documentary folklore film entitled, “To Catch a Crown: Mardi Gras in Biloxi.”