Folklorists Gather in Wales for Conference on Urban Legends

Jan Harold Brunvand, Bill Ellis and Philip Hiscock are among the respected academic folklorists meeting in Aberystwyth, Wales this week for the 22nd Annual Perspectives on Contemporary Legend Conference. Among the dozens of familiar topics to be discussed are: AIDS legends in the Chicano community of south Texas, email versions of the Spanish Prisoner Swindle, last year's eruption of SARS rumors, nausea-inducing food contamination legends, and the commercial appropriation of a contemporary legend: Altoids and Oral Sex. Professor Brunvand will give a talk on how both the genre and the term "urban legend" are evolving and flourishing in the digital age.