This paper examines the role of algae in various forms of folk narrative from creation myth, to folk practice, to creatures represented by algae to trouble through the rise of harmful algal blooms due to climate change and investigate how public facing work can re-incorporate folkloric techniques.
Paper long abstract
Stories of seaweed, kelp, and algae are present in folkloric traditions across different cultures featuring consumption as well as personifications. This project seeks to reexamine the presence of algae across different established traditions and speculate on how these narrative orientations might be useful in rethinking the current, rising problem of algal blooms due to climate change. Through revisiting algae and seaweed and their attachments to misery, fortune, wayfinding, and nourishment across stories, this project seeks to challenge the current treatment of algae blooms as an omen of imminent doom and complicate their presence. This project also takes an applied folklore approach to how public facing humanities work can re-incorporate folkloric techniques when dealing in algal blooms.