Jan Rosenberg (1955–2023)

Folklorist and educator Jan Rosenberg passed away on January 7, 2023, in Bloomington, Indiana. She was a founding member of the Folklore and Education Section of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and held a BA in Folklore from Indiana University and a PhD in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She devoted her career to folklife education, using fieldwork and school ethnography to develop and present curriculum and traditional artists in schools and for a variety of organizations, including the Florida Folklife Program, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council.In 1997, Jan created Heritage Education Resources, through which she developed and provided research materials and services to educators, schools, and folklife organizations, for the exploration of heritage and cultural diversity. Her work included ethnographic documentation and fieldwork, archive development, and workshops for educators and health professionals.In addition to this work, she researched and wrote about pioneers in intercultural and folklore education, such as Rachel Davis Dubois and Progressive Era educator Dorothy Howard. Jan's research led to Howard being honored by having the AFS Folklore and Education Prize named after her. Jan's book Intercultural Education, Folklore, and the Pedagogical Thought of Rachel Davis Dubois was published in 2019. She also published These Are Our Stories: Women's Stories of Abuse and Survival (2007) along with a bibliography of works about folklore and education between 1929 and 1992. Her series of essays on traveling and exploring 11 Southern states during an 8-month period from 1999–2000, “Southern Journeys” can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20021002000009/http://www.ariga.com/southernjourney/preface.htm/.Jan was Jewish, uncompromising, gay, and in her own words, “a Damn Yankee” who loved the South. In “Southern Journeys,” she wrote: I chose to explore the American South because it is a place where I am personally most at ease. To me, its textures, smells, and emotions are strong, and people are articulate about them. While stereotypes of Southern conservatism, elitism, racism, and ignorance seem to persist, everyone's concept of home bores through misshapen perceptions. Home causes wonder and a feeling of safety and comfort. People's descriptions are like a fabric that cools in the summer and warms in the winter. Concepts of home help to keep familial continuity and social cohesion. And when a child comes of age, he or she will know that home can be visited in joy and returned to in sorrow.Her third book, on the subject of Arthurdale, West Virginia, the nation's first New Deal community and its educational programs, Arthurdale: Cultural Intervention, Education, and Folklore in a New Deal Setting, was in its final edits at the time of her passing and will be finished and published by her beloved colleagues. She continued to share her deep knowledge of Southern culture with a variety of audiences in spite of battling illness in her last years. In 2022, she presented a virtual program on “Southern and African American Gospel Folklife Education” for Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts, which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5MU7pruGgc.Jan had a wonderful and wry sense of humor and loved music. A colleague, Cindy Kallet, noted: Jan was passionate about her guitars (she had at least three, one a tenor). She cultivated them like plants and took the greatest care of them. They were true companions to her. She also enjoyed composing tunes. At one point, she would go to the Runcible Spoon [coffeehouse] in Bloomington every week, playing for anyone who would care to listen. We enjoyed having Jan join us when we played old time tunes from the southern Indiana repertoire of Joe Dawson. I particularly loved watching the smile on her face as she tried to wrap her brain around the crooked ones.To quote Jan's sister Devorah Rose: “Her memory is a blessing.”