The International Society for Contemporary Legend Research (ISCLR) is pleased to announce that it is to award an annual student essay prize to honour the memory of Dr. David Buchan (1939-1994), leading international ballad scholar, and a staunch supporter and perceptive writer in the area of contemporary legend research.

• The prize will be awarded for the best student essay (submitted in writing or presented orally at the annual ISCLR conference) that combines research and analysis on some aspect of contemporary legend, or contemporary legend research. Previously published essays will not be considered for the award.
• Applications are invited from registered (post)graduate students, although undergraduate essays will also be accepted for consideration on the advice of faculty members.
• Either students or their teachers may submit essays. Instructors are asked to encourage students with eligible essays to enter the competition.
• The deadline for submission is the 1st of May (2024: Extended to May 10th) in the year the award is to be made, and the essays should have been written within the previous academic year, or the current academic year.
• The award will be made by the President of ISCLR upon the recommendation of the Selection Committee appointed by him\her, and will be announced at the annual meeting of the Society.
• The winner will receive $250 (U.S.), and a year’s membership to ISCLR. The winning essay will normally be submitted for publication in the Society’s journal, Contemporary Legend.

For further information or a copy of the Guide For Applicants, please contact:

Virginia Siegel

Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts

University of Arkansas Libraries

MULN 425
365 North McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville, AR 72701-4002

Isclr.secretary@gmail.com or vdsiegel@uark.edu

Winner (and past winners):

• • The Dr. David Buchan Student Essay Prize for 2023 goes to: ‘The Legend Tripper’s Progress: The Legendary Destinations Grid’ by John E. Priegnitz II of Utah State University.

    The jury appreciates John Priegnitz’s design for a Legendary Destinations Grid that distinguishes legend-trips and pilgrimages as different forms of ostensive behavior and experience. Priegnitz designed a system of degrees and classifications to gain a better understanding of legendary destinations and the motivations for people who visit such locations. By using a grid based on an XY axis and divided into four quadrants, legend scholars can better conceptualize the nature of any legendary destination.

  • 2022 Betty Aquino (George Mason University)
    “The New Halloween Sadist: The ISIS Sleeper Cell of Northern Virginia.”
  • 2020 / 2021: not awarded
  • 2019 Jesse A. Fivecoate (Indiana University-Bloomington)
    “Untellability and Legend: Ghost Narratives and the Northern Ireland Troubles.”
  • 2018 Angelina Kozlovskaya (European University at St. Petersburg, Russia)
    “Belief and Play in Children’s Supernatural Practices”
  • 2017 Jesse A. Fivecoate (Indiana University-Bloomington)
    “Fake News and Its Ostensive Consequences.”
  • 2016 Eleanor Hasken (Indiana University)
    “’Some of My Experiences, I Just Want to Share’: Tellability in Alien Abduction Narratives.”
  • 2015 Mercedes Torrez, (Texas A&M University, San Antonio)
    “Bridging the Past with the Present: Disability, Transgression, and Fetishized Fascination in Reimagining the Cultural Haunting of San Antonio’s Legendary Donkey Lady.”
  • 2014 Adriana Kábová (Charles University, Prague)
    “Blood in radios, heads in televisions: Identity and ‘civilizing forces’ beyond the Sumbanese rumors”
  • 2013 Tori Edwards (Utah State University)
    “Butch Cassidy and the Outlaw-Hero Motif”
  • 2012 Ambrož Kvartič (University of Ljubljana)
    “Urban Legend as an Emic Category: Vernacular Conceptualizations of ‘Urbana Legenda’ in Slovenia”
  • 2011 David Puglia (Penn State Harrisburg)
    “Getting Maryland’s Goat: The Goatman Legend in Prince George’s County”
  • 2010 Virginia Fugarino (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
    “‘The Things They Carried’: Legends of Supply Acquisition and Cultural and Media Response in the Wake of Disaster”
  • 2009 Virginia Fugarino (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
    “I (Don’t) Like Ike: Post-Hurricane Legends in Electronic Discussion”