Folklore Lecture with Dr. Astrid Ensslin
6 October 2026
About the lecture:
In this talk, Professor Ensslin will introduce StoryMachine, a DFG/AHRC-funded digital platform developed by scholars in Germany and the UK to preserve, explore, and provide greater access to folklore traditions. She will discuss StoryMachine as a site for exploring “algorithmic folklore”—creative vernacular practices that emerge through interactions between human storytellers and automated systems. The talk will explore how algorithms participate in the production, transformation, and circulation of folklore across diverse cultural traditions.
About the lecturer:
Professor Astrid Ensslin teaches the dynamics of virtual communication spaces at the University of Regensburg. She is currently Vice President for AI, Digitalisation and Outreach and Founding Director of DAS|LAB (Digital Area Studies Lab) in the university’s Department of Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies. Previously, she held full professorships at Bangor University, the University of Alberta, and the University of Bergen.
Her research and teaching lie at the intersections of digital media and game studies, cultural studies, literary studies, and applied linguistics. She is currently a Co-Investigator on the DFG/AHRC-funded “Project StoryMachine,” which aims to preserve, explore, and provide greater access to folklore traditions in Germany and the UK through the development of a digital infrastructure combining spatial hypertext and recommender algorithms.
