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The Folklore Society President’s Prize 2024

— Posted on 3rd December 2024
image of tree trunks, dim light, and shadows

We are very pleased to announce that The Folklore Society President’s Prize 2024 was awarded to Harvey Alexander Cross, for his essay ‘Why Do People Believe in Ghosts, Aliens, and Bigfoot? Exploring the Rise of Popular Antiscientific Folklore in the Euro-American West.’

Congratulations, Harvey!

President’s Prize report 2024

The panel agreed to award this year’s President’s Prize for student work in the field of folklore to Harvey Cross, undergraduate anthropologist at the University of Oxford, for his final year thesis on ‘Why Do People Believe in Ghosts, Aliens, and Bigfoot? Exploring the Rise of Popular Antiscientific Folklore in the Euro-American West.’ Cross attempts to make sense of belief in cryptids, hauntings and UFOs, all the while questioning the terminology of belief. He draws on a very wide albeit eclectic range of anthropological literature, but at the core of his study is his own fieldwork, interviews and observations, among belief communities. The thesis brims with enthusiasm while retaining an intellectual purpose. Sometimes the passion to grapple with big topics runs in advance of the evidence, and some claims need qualifying, but Cross held the panel’s interest throughout.