This week, Troy resident Jessika Wallace was awarded a 2025 Cauthen Fellowship from the Alabama Folklife Association (AFA). 

The AFA was founded in 1980 and documents, preserves and promotes the folkways and traditions of Alabama. The Cauthen Fellows program awards individuals one-year fellowships to research an Alabama folk tradition and produce an article for the AFA’s annual journal, Tributaries. Since 2014, the AFA has awarded 32 fellowships totaling $37,000 in projects representing a wide range of folk practices. 

“Alabama folklife encompasses a wide range of tradition and experience, easily showcasing Alabama’s diversity and evolving cultural and artistic landscape,” AFA Executive Director Emily Blejwas stated. “The Cauthen Fellowships reflect this, with a variety of art form, culture, and geography represented in the topics.”

The fellowship was established in 2010 in honor of Joyce H. Cauthen, the first Executive Director of the AFA. Wallace was awarded the fellowship for her topic of Muscogee Creek Shell Carving in Alabama at the Mvskoke Creek Nation located in Pike County.