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Kaiwen Lin, DEALL Visiting Scholar, honored by the American Folklore Society

October 22, 2025

Kaiwen Lin, DEALL Visiting Scholar, honored by the American Folklore Society

A woman wearing glasses and a floral dress stands in front of a tree, smiling and enjoying the outdoors.
In October 19th, 2025, Kaiwen Lin, a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University and PhD candidate at Ocean University of China, was selected as a Gerald L. Davis Grant awardee by the American Folklore Society. This honor recognizes her commitment to community-driven scholarship and her efforts to promote diversity, connection, and healing into the work of folklore and cultural studies.
 
Lin’s research focuses on maritime folklore in southern China. She is especially interested in how oral stories from local communities reveal the dynamic interactions between humans and nature, often highlighting the perspectives of marginalized women. 
 
Her current project, “The Dual-Faced Mechanism of the Life Tree Theory: A Case Study of Island Woman Tales,” is rooted in fieldwork and narrative analysis of women-centered oral traditions. She has extended the “Life Tree” narrative framework by incorporating a dual-character perspective, offering a nuanced lens for interpreting shifting relationships and layered identities, while critically engaging with themes of gender, ecology, and survival.