Western Kentucky University Scholar Honored by the American Folklore Society

Ann K. Ferrell, an assistant professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, has been named the recipient of the 2014 Wayland D. Hand Prize for the outstanding book combining historical and folkloristic perspectives from the American Folklore Society. Dr. Ferrell was honored for her book Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century (University of Kentucky Press, 2013).

The prize jury stated that “the volume’s combination of historical and ethnographic methodologies with rhetorical analysis stands out among the many entries for the prize. Writing precisely and in an engaging style, Ferrell has constructed both a history of the small farmer burley tobacco industry and an ethnography of tobacco cultivation.”

Dr. Ferrell is a graduate of the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she majored in women’s studies. She holds a master’s degree from Western Kentucky University and a Ph.D. in English and folklore from Ohio State University.