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Archives of folklore collected by students in the course "Survey of American Folklore" offered by the University of Michigan Program in American Culture and first taught by Bruce Conforth in 2005. Collected folklore reports compiled by students in American Folklore course based on oral interviews with informants. (Interviews are included on a variety of physical formats--cassettes, microcassettes, CDs, VHS tapes). Reports include essays, transcripts on topics ranging from popular folklore to campus legends and traditions.

The American Culture Folklore and Oral History Archives consists of folklore collection reports prepared by undergraduate students in the American Folklore course offered by the University of Michigan Program in American Culture. Prior to the transfer to the Bentley Historical Library, the folklore reports were organized according to general topics by students in the course and placed in archival folders and boxes under the direction of the professor. That order has been retained. Very often the media and objects included in the report have remained. The collection is meant to directly serve students who may take the Survey of American Folklore class in the future, and indirectly to those who, years from now, may re-discover and research aspects of American folklore that were pertinent during present day.

There is considerable overlap in subject matter between the categories of collecting topics. In the collection, folders for the first set of reports in a series are ordered according to their pre-assigned number (which can be found in the Administrative Files series) and not according to the last name of the student or title. For the second set, however, where no such number exists, the reports are ordered by surname of the student. In this finding aid, only the student's name and title of the report is listed. Further in the series names will appear to be in alphabetical order when the pre-assigned numbers were not continued.

The Department of American Culture was founded as Program in American Culture in 1952 through the efforts of Professor Joe Lee Davis to study American life. The program initially served as a hub for interdisciplinary courses. In the 1970s the program and coursework expanded to include the study of women and minority groups with an emphasis on Latino Studies as well as art and media studies. The Program became a Department in 2012. Records include administrative files, directors' correspondence, committee minutes, curriculum material, topical files, and material on faculty members and their activities.

The Department of American Culture (University of Michigan) records (5 linear feet, 12.36 GB and 1 archived website) contain administrative files, curriculum information, and faculty files. It also features materials documenting the interdisciplinary connections between the department and other schools, programs, and departments at the University of Michigan. The collection includes records from two of the Department of American Culture's ethnic studies programs, the Latino/a Studies Program and the Arab and Muslim American Studies Program.

Housed within the Program in American Culture and originally developed in response to student, faculty, and staff activism at the University, the Latina/o Studies Program at the University of Michigan was founded in the fall of 1984. The Latina/o Studies Program provides an interdisciplinary pan-Latina/o approach to the study of Latina/o history, politics, cultures, social relations, and artistic expression in the United States. The records in this collection date from 1984-2007, with the majority of the records from the period 1986-2000, and document the administrative, teaching, research, and public programs functions of the Latina/o Studies Program.

The Latina/o Studies Program records document the administrative, teaching, research, and public programs functions of the Latino Studies Program. The records in this collection measure 2.5 linear feet, and date from 1984 to 2007, with the majority of the records from the period 1986 to 2000. They are primarily comprised of correspondence, event flyers, meeting minutes, program planning materials, course descriptions and schedules, syllabi, event flyers and promotional materials, faculty search documents, information on visiting professors, and materials from Latina/o staff, faculty, and student organizations at the University of Michigan. The records are organized into five series: Administrative Files, Curriculum, Events and Programs, Faculty, and Latina/o Organizations.