Sep 15, 2016
Andrea McGuire is completing her
MA degree in Folklore at Memorial University. She is currently in
the throes of writing her master’s thesis on hitchhiking traditions
in Newfoundland and Cape Breton. In her thesis, she is looking at
how trust, in its many variations, influences the way hitchhiking
is practiced, and the way hitchhiking stories are told. We
discuss why Andrea chose hitchhiking for her thesis, how she
conducted her research, the difference between short and long
distance hitchhiking, how gender effects hitchhiking, the stories
people tell and the techniques they use, the brief history of
hitchhiking in Newfoundland, and examples of the hitchhiking
stories she has heard.