Folklore in the United States and Canada

Patricia Sawin is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Folklore Program in the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is author of Listening for a Life: A Dialogic Ethnography of Bessie Eldreth through Her Songs and Stories. Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt is Vice President Emerita and Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Agnes Scott College. She is author of American Folklore Scholarship: A Dialogue of Dissent and (with Isaac Jack Lévy) Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women: Sweetening the Spirits and Healing the Sick.

"The field of folklore studies has for some time needed a book such as this. To be most fully productive in their careers, student and early-career folklorists need to understand the institutional history and ecology of the field as much as they do its intellectual history and ecology. It also demonstrates the critical importance of 'team playing' beyond one's own research program, and the effective practice of everyday and strategic academic politics, to the sustenance of the field and the academic programs that constitute it."—Timothy Lloyd, Former Executive Director of the American Folklore Society"This volume provides a fascinating journey through the social contexts of the development of our field in the American and Canadian academy.  A lively and timely peek into the individuals, circumstances, politics, and coincidences that shaped the academic field of folklore."—Diane Goldstein, Indiana University"A fascinating collection of essays that chronicles the many paths that folklore scholars have taken in their quest to claim an academic place for this emerging discipline. Contributors who were involved firsthand with the leading American and Canadian folklore programs provide revealing accounts of successes and setbacks, offering insight on navigating the ideal and pragmatic worlds of the academy––lessons equally important today as universities struggle with new expectations and identities."—Gerald L. Pocius, University Research Professor Emeritus, Memorial University"When the volume's intended readers pick it up, they will be certain to turn first to the program where they studied and which shaped them (which this reviewer confesses she did), but they should come away from the volume with a much better sense of their own academic legacy and of the astonishing variety of academic folklore (heritage, popular culture, etc.) programs that exist in North America today. Each has its own emphasis, theoretical profile, ethos, and mission, but together they have the power to be greater thanthe sum of their parts. The volume also reminds readers that, while folkloristics may no longer be an "emerging" discipline, the future health of the field will need constant and careful curation."—Maria Carlson, University of Kansas, Folklorica

• Introduction / Patricia Sawin and Rosemary Lévy ZumwaltPart I: Early Programs1. The Quintessence of the Humanities: Folklore and Mythology at Harvard / Rachel C. Kirby and Anthony Bak Buccitelli2. Bringing Ethnographic Research to the Public Conversation: Folklore at the University of North Carolina / Patricia Sawin3. Teaching and Research at Laval University (Québec, Canada): From Folklore to Ethnology / Laurier Turgeon4. The Folklife Connection: Ethnological Organization at Franklin and Marshall, Cooperstown, and Penn State Harrisburg / Simon J. BronnerPart II : 1960s-70s Efflorescence5. "The Great Team" of American Folklorists: Characters Large in Life and Grand in Plans / Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt6. The Jewel in the Crown: Hallmarks of Success in Indiana University's Folklore Program / Jeanne Harrah-Johnson7. Folklore and Mythology Studies at UCLA / Michael Owen Jones8. Of Politics, Disciplines, and Scholars: MacEdward Leach and the Founding of the Folklore Program at the University of Pennsylvania / Rosina S. Miller9. Groundtruthing the Humanities: Penn Folklore and Folklife, 1973-2013 / Mary Hufford10. Toward a Multi-Genealogical Folkloristics: The Berkeley Experiment / Charles L. Briggs11. The Texas School / Richard Bauman12. Memorial University's Folklore Program: Outsiders and Insiders / Lynne S. McNeill13. A Century of Folklore Research and Teaching at Western Kentucky / Michael Ann Williams14. Folklore at the University of Oregon: A History of Tradition, Innovation, and Pushing the Rock Up the Hill / Sharon R. Sherman15. From Ukrainian Studies to the Folklore of the Prairies: The Kule Center for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore, University of Alberta / Natalie Kononenko16. Engagement with Community in Distinctive Folklore Concentrations: University of Louisiana at Lafayette / Marcia Gaudet and Barry Jean Ancelet17. The Fife Legacy: Fifty Years of Folklore at Utah State University / Randy WilliamsPart III: Newer Programs and Innovations18. Folklore in the Nation's Capital: The George Washington University Experience / James I. Deutsch19. The University of Wisconsin—Madison's Folklore Program and the Wisconsin Idea / Christine J. Widmayer and B. Marcus Cederström20. Folklore @ Brigham Young's Universities: Four Generations of Inter(con)textual Studies of Region, Religion, and Beyond / Jill Terry Rudy21. The Mason IDEA / Debra Lattanzi Shutika22. Folklore and Interdisciplinarity at OSU / Patrick B. Mullen and Amy Shuman23. Show Me Folklore: The Folklore, Oral Tradition, and Culture Studies Program at the University of Missouri / Claire Schmidt24. This is the Right Place for It: The Development of the Folklore Program at Cape Breton University / Jodi McDavid25. Practical Cultural Work: The MA in Cultural Sustainability at Goucher College / Amy E. Skillman and Rory Turner26. The Future out of the Past: The View from the Conference on the Future of American Folkloristics / Jesse A. Fivecoate, Kristina Downs, and Meredith A. E. McGriffConclusion / Patricia Sawin and Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt