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David Clarke is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Arts and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He teaches media law and his research specialism is contemporary legend. Previously he worked as a journalist for The Sheffield Star and Yorkshire Post and spent four years working as a Press Officer in local government. His PhD in Folklore and was completed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, in 1999. From 2008-13 he acted as consultant and curator of the MoD UFO files project with The National Archives. His books include The Angel of Mons (2004) and How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth (2015). In 2018 he co-founded the Centre for Contemporary Legend at Sheffield Hallam University. This blog covers his twin research interests in journalism and folklore. The views expressed in the contents are entirely his own.
What is Folklore?
Once upon a time… ‘Folklore’ meant ancient ballads or fairy tales or the peculiar superstitions and customs of ‘primitive’ peoples. Today folklore is a tool for studying custom and belief, urban legends, modern myth and even rumours spread via the internet. Much folklore can be found online and buried in the narrative content of media and social networking - from legends and reports of ghosts, UFOs and 'big cats' to language, customs and traditions. The study of folklore is centrally and crucially important 'in our attempts to understand our own behaviour and that of our fellow human beings' according to one scholarly definition. Folklore is a vital and ongoing area of study and one of the few academic disciplines that engage, in a fundamental way, with everyday life.-
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- Little Atoms 393 – Timothy Snyder & Black Earth
- Ash Pryce on "How to talk to the dead" @ Greenwich SitP, 7:30 pm, 7/10/15
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- Professor David Hand on The Improbability Principle @ Goldsmiths, 6:10 pm, 29/9/15 (tomorrow)
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- Me and Jean La Fontaine on Satanic Ritual Abuse Claims and False Memories at London Fortean Society, 7:45 pm, tonight, 24/9/15
- Little Atoms 392 – Royal Society Winton Prize 2015 Three
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Curt Collins on saucers in pop culture- Cash-Landrum UFO Questions
- The Cash-Landrum UFO Encounter of 1980
- Analyzing a 2007 UFO Sighting in Mississippi
- The Cash-Jamaica UFO Incident
- Ben Rich, Area 51, & Taking ET Home
- An Impressive New Book on UFO Witness Testimony
- UFOs, Fame and Anonymity
- The NSA Cash-Landrum UFO Document
- The Cash-Landrum UFO: 1980s Recording of Witnesses Interviews
- UFO Advocate: Betty Cash
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Paul Kimball’s The Other Side of Truth: Don’t believe, don’t disbelieve. Think- Nick Pope - Useful Idiot of the Far Right
- Who Are They? What Do They Want?
- An Empty Suit
- Synchronicity, Irish Style
- Project Blue Book - A Review
- Stan Friedman Retires
- Halifax gets Haunted!
- Haunted Extra, Vol. 1.01 - Queen's County Museum Revisited
- 2017 East Coast Paraconference - Remote Viewing Panel
- 2017 East Coast Paraconference - August 11, 12, 13
Tag Archives: UAPs
‘Fraught with Perils’: Jimmy Carter and NASA’s last strange trip into UFO territory
A number of US Presidents have expressed an interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials but only one has ever reported a sighting: Jimmy Carter. The 39th President held office from 1977 until 1981 during a period of intense public interest in … Continue reading
The Calvine UFO photograph – revealed
Read the full story of how I found the most famous UFO photo in the world in my exclusive story published by The Daily Mail here. And follow the breaking story over on UAPMedia UK. After thirty years immersed in … Continue reading
The UFO that Never Was?: the Calvine photographs
Is this blurry image really the ‘most compelling evidence’ for UFOs visiting the UK? Does it show a secret US ‘black project’ operating over Scotland? Or are the Calvine photographs an aerial version of the Loch Ness Monster? After a … Continue reading
How UFOs Conquered the World – without firing a shot
BBC History Magazine/History Extra published my article that explains how the idea of visitors in mysterious flying objects grew from its origins in the Cold War into the most enduring modern myth. You can read the main feature here (password … Continue reading
DRONES AND UFOs: new data reveals rise in close encounters with aircraft in UK airspace
Aircrew have a reported an increase in the numbers of close encounters between ‘unknown objects’ and passenger aircraft since a drone caused chaos at Gatwick Airport. A pattern of disturbing incidents has emerged from data obtained by a team of … Continue reading
Black Projects, UFOs and the mysterious MO D-Notice
Has the Ministry of Defence ever suppressed media stories about Black Project aircraft operating secretly over the British Isles? For many years conspiracy-minded aviation writers and UFOlogists have claimed the government has, on occasions, used its contacts in the Press … Continue reading
The UFO Files: Our Man in Sheffield
I spent two decades on the trail of the UK Ministry of Defence’s cache of secret UFO papers. But little did I know that my FOI campaign triggered off a mole-hunt among the spooks – and a probe to discover … Continue reading
Finding Needles in the MoD Haystack – guest blog
I am pleased to welcome veteran British UFOlogist Jenny Randles for this guest blog reflecting on the release of the Ministry of Defence UFO files: After the furore over the release of the final MoD files the UFO debate may … Continue reading
Seeing Sprites
Six years ago I used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the release of a secret Ministry of Defence report on ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ (UAP). The study, codenamed ‘Project Condign‘, concluded that UAPs – as the MoD’s Defence Intelligence … Continue reading