Gathering Traditions, Building Community, Crossing Borders
- When
- Thursday, November 5, 202610:00 AM – 10:50 AM MSTAdd to calendarGoogle Calendar
- Where
- 102 AcaciaOpen in Maps
- Hosted by
- HIIT Conference
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About
50-Minute Workshop
Presenters: Meredith E. Abarca, Professor of Food Studies and Literature; Dept. of English; UTEP
Steven T. Varela, Director of Learning Technologies; University of Notre Dame
Folklore lives in all of us—in what we make, celebrate, and pass down. This collaborative presentation brings together the work of students from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and academic technologists from the University of Notre Dame (ND) to explore how expressive cultural practices can create pathways toward solidarity, dignity, and mutual understanding.
Through folklore stories written by UTEP students in Dr. Meredith Abarca's Mexican-American Folklore class, and showcased via a mixed-media technology platform and project started at Notre Dame, we discover how rituals, music, food, celebrations, and oral traditions carry deep personal meaning while reflecting universal human experiences of love, belonging, and hope. A family recipe, a seasonal festival, and/or a traditional song can embody lived experiences and aspirations that stretch far beyond any single moment. Rather than remaining frozen in time, these traditions adapt to new realities, demonstrating creativity as one of our greatest strengths.