Fariha KhanSupervisor

Fariha Khan oversees the day to day operations of the Folklore Project. In addition, she is the Co-Director of the Asian American Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania where she also teaches courses on South Asians in the U.S., Asian American Communities, Asian American Food, as well as Muslim Identity in America. She received a Master’s degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Yale University and a PhD in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. Her current research focuses on South Asian American Muslims, Pakistani American culture, and the Asian American community. Dr. Khan was appointed in 2015 to the Pennsylvania Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs and served until 2019. Actively involved in the Philadelphia community, Dr. Khan is Vice Chair of the Board of the Samuel S. Fels Fund and serves or has served on the Board of the American Folklore Society, the Philadelphia Folklore Project, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, and the James Brister Alumni Society.

Naomi Sturm-WijesingheConsultant

Naomi Sturm-Wijesinghe leads PFP’s day-to-day operations and works collaboratively with the board and staff to advance the organization’s social justice mission and impact through innovative programming. A folklorist and ethnomusicologist by training, Naomi specializes in themes of urban and immigrant folklife, indigenous and mestizo traditions of the Americas, Sri Lankan folk arts and waterlore. Her deeply held belief that local knowledge both sustains communities and advances the quality of urban life, is central to PFP’s approach to folklife in service of social change.

Eric César MoralesFolk Art & Social Change Fellow

As PFP’s inaugural Folk Art & Social Change Fellow, Eric César Morales, Ph.D., oversees the organization’s Folk Arts and Social Change Residency program and supports the Folklore Project’s educational partnerships. A graduate of the Folklore Program at Indiana University, Bloomington, Eric has worked in arts organizations across the country, including Alliance for California Traditional Arts, City Lore, and the Nevada Arts Council, and he has served as a grant panelist for the Indiana Arts Commission, the Pennsylvania Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Eric has also spent years training as a dancer, having performed in local, national, and international festivals with Polynesian groups out of California, Indiana, and French Polynesia.

In addition to his work in the public sector, he has designed and taught his own courses on folklore, social justice, and Latino Studies at Indiana University and at Utah State University, where he worked as a postdoctoral fellow. Currently, he is the book reviews editor of Western Folklore, and while at PFP, he will continue with regularly publishing his research on topics related to Latinidad, Polynesia, performance, and social activism. Among the many qualities making him well suited for PFP is a core belief that “every time we choose to learn something, we take another step towards becoming the person we want to be.”