Erika Brady

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Erika Brady
Alma materIndiana University
Scientific career
Thesis The box that got the flourishes : the cylinder phonograph in folklore fieldwork, 1890-1937  (1985)

Erika Brady is an American anthropologist, writer, speaker, and radio show host. She is a past-president of the Kentucky Folklore Society Fellows and editor of the journal Southern Folklore.

Contents

Career

Brady studied at Harvard University, University of California, Los Angeles, and Indiana University Bloomington. She taught anthropology at Western Kentucky University beginning in 1989 [1] and, as of 2022, has retired from teaching. [2] Brady was the editor of Southern Folklore, a journal published by the University Press of Kentucky, from 1992 [3] though 2000. [4] She was the president of the Kentucky Folklore Society Fellows in 2015. [5]

She worked for the Library of Congress helping preserve and make available its collection of wax cylinder recordings. [6] [7] Her work at the Library of Congress helped transfer audio tracks from wax cylinders onto tapes that could be preserved for future listeners, including songs from Native Americans [8] and French folk songs sung in Missouri. [9]

Her book, A Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography, was about the impact of phonograph technology on ethnography. She also wrote a book about alternative medicine methodologies. [10] She has also written about healing in Healing Logics: Culture and Medicine in Modern Health Belief Systems which was reviewed by the Western States Folklore Society. [11]

Outreach

Brady hosts the folk music radio show Barren River Breakdown on WKYU-FM. [12] She co-hosted and eventually took over hosting of the radio show Barren River Breakdown which began in 1997. [13] [ better source needed ] In 2015 she delivered the American Folklore Society's Don Yoder Lecture in Religious Folklife with a speech titled “A Subtle Thing Withal”: Reflections on the Ineffable, the Unspeakable, and the Risible in Vernacular Religion". [14] In 2010 about the significance of full moons in folkways with ABC News. [15]

Awards and honors

In 2002, Brady received the Acorn Award from the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education. [16] In 2011 she received a Kentucky Governor's Award in the Arts for her work bringing regional music to Kentucky. [17] In 2015, Brady gave the Don Yoder lecture at the American Folklore Society's annual meeting. [18]

Writings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folklore</span> Expressive culture shared by particular groups

Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes material culture, such as traditional building styles common to the group. Folklore also encompasses customary lore, taking actions for folk beliefs, and the forms and rituals of celebrations such as Christmas, weddings, folk dances, and initiation rites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folklore studies</span> Branch of anthropology

Folklore studies is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the folklore artifacts themselves. It became established as a field across both Europe and North America, coordinating with Volkskunde (German), folkeminner (Norwegian), and folkminnen (Swedish), among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folk art</span> Art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople

Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically trained within a popular tradition, rather than in the fine art tradition of the culture. There is often overlap, or contested ground with 'naive art'. "Folk art" is not used in regard to traditional societies where ethnographic art continue to be made.

The Archive of Folk Culture was established in 1928 as the first national collection of American folk music in the United States of America. It was initially part of the Music Division of the Library of Congress and now resides in the American Folklife Center.

Margaret Anne "Peggy" Bulger is a folklorist and served as the director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress from 1999 to 2011, when she moved to Florida to continue work on personal projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Komal Kothari</span> Indian folk artist and classical singer

Komal Kothari (1929–2004) was an Indian folklorist and ethnomusicologist. Komal Kothari had devoted his life to investigation and documentation of folk traditions of western Rajasthan. Kothari received the honour of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan from the Government of India. Komal Kothari painstakingly worked to preserve the cultural memory and made numerous recordings of folk music. He studied Langa and Manganiyar communities of folk musicians of Thar desert. Komal Kothari was not only a scholar but also a man of action. He co-founded Rupayan Sansthan - Rajasthan Institute of Folklore, in 1960 in the village of Borunda. The institution houses a repository of recordings by Kothari and works to collect, preserve, and disseminate the oral traditions of Rajasthan. Kothari was co-editor of the journal Lok Sanskriti, a journal based on the theme of folk culture. Besides, Kothari arranged international performances of folk artists from Rajasthan in several countries. His monograph on Langas, a folk-musician caste in Rajasthan, was enlivened by an accompanying album of recordings of twelve folk songs sung by Langa artistes. His understanding of desert culture and its connections with ecology endeared him to the environmentalists. He planned a museum based on the ecology of the broom’, to show the technical use of specific types of desert grass for specific purposes. His vision was actualised in the form of Arna Jharna - The Thar Desert Museum of Rajasthan in Borunda, near Jodhpur. Kothari was a scholar of patterns of culture and his expertise enriched both folklore studies and history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon J. Bronner</span> American historian

Simon J. Bronner is an American folklorist, ethnologist, historian, sociologist, educator, college dean, and author.

Anne Geddes Gilchrist OBE FSA was a British folk song collector. Although less well-known than her London-based counterparts, her expertise was acknowledged by Cecil Sharp, Lucy Broadwood, and John Masefield.

In religious studies and folkloristics, folk religion, popular religion, traditional religion, or vernacular religion comprises various forms and expressions of religion that are distinct from the official doctrines and practices of organized religion. The precise definition of folk religion varies among scholars. Sometimes also termed popular belief, it consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of a religion; but outside official doctrine and practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Melloan</span> Musical artist

Mark Melloan, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.

Family folklore is the branch of folkloristics concerned with the study and use of folklore and traditional culture transmitted within an individual family group. This includes craft goods produced by family members or memorabilia that have been saved as reminders of family events. It includes family photos, photo albums, along with bundles of other pages held for posterity such as certificates, letters, journals, notes, and shopping lists. Family sayings and stories which recount true events are retold as a means of maintaining a common family identity. Family customs are performed, modified, sometimes forgotten, created or resurrected with great frequency. Each time the result is to define and solidify the perception of the family as unique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Heffron Roberts</span> American ethnomusicologist

Helen Heffron Roberts (1888–1985) was an American anthropologist and pioneer ethnomusicologist. Her work included the study of the origins and development of music among the Jamaican Maroons, and the Puebloan peoples of the American southwest. Her recordings of ancient Hawaiian meles are archived at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Roberts was a protege of Alfred V. Kidder and Franz Boas.

Kenneth S. Goldstein was an American folklorist, educator and record producer and a "prime mover" in the American Folk Music Revival.

Don Yoder was an American folklorist specializing in the study of Pennsylvania Dutch, Quaker, and Amish and other Anabaptist folklife in Pennsylvania who wrote at least 15 books on these subjects. A professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, he specialized in religious folklife and the study of belief. He is known for his teaching, collecting, field trips, recording, lectures, and books. He also co-founded a folk festival in Pennsylvania, which is the USA's oldest continual annual folklife festival, and is credited with "bringing the idea of "folklife" to the United States".

The Philadelphia Folklore Project (PFP) is a non-profit organization advocating for and providing documentation, presentation, education, and collaborative research to folk and traditional arts across the Philadelphia region in service of social change. Founded in 1987 by folklorist Debora Kodish, PFP offers workshops and assistance to local artists and communities through organizing concerts, events, and exhibitions. Their driving philosophy is that "diversity and equity are central elements of thriving communities." One of a handful of independent folk and traditional arts nonprofits nationwide, the organization is widely regarded as a powerful instrument for socially conscious and anti-racist activism and serves as a model for sustaining living cultural heritage in the fields of applied folklore, ethnomusicology, and anthropology. It seeks to foster growth in communities through access to grant funding and artistic venues, but also material and social infrastructure in defense against gentrification and through cultivating positive inter-communal relationships.

Elaine J Lawless is an American folklorist. She is Curators' Professor Emerita of English and Folklore Studies at the University of Missouri. In 2008 she was elected president of the American Folklore Society.

David J. Hufford is an American folklorist and ethnographer known for his research on paranormal phenomena and sleep paralysis. He is professor emeritus of Humanities and Psychiatry at Penn State University College of Medicine, and the former chair of Medical Humanities.

Michael Owen Jones is an American Folklorist and Emeritus Professor in the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane C. Beck</span> American folklorist and oral historian

Jane C. Beck is an American folklorist and oral historian. She is Executive Director Emeritus and founder of the Vermont Folklife Center and has published research on the folklore of Vermont and on African American belief systems.

Michael Ann Williams is an American Folklorist, recognised for her research into vernacular architecture, particularly in Appalachia.

References

  1. ↑ Latimer, Jacob (April 15, 2021). "The Art of Life: Seasoned folk studies professor's passions for music, knitting and nature". WKUHerald.com. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  2. ↑ "Retired Folk Studies and Anthropology Faculty | Western Kentucky University". www.wku.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-08.
  3. ↑ Southern Folklore 1992: Vol 49 Iss 2. Southern Folklore. 1992.
  4. ↑ Southern Folklore 2000: Vol 57 Iss 3. Southern Folklore. 2000.
  5. ↑ Siegel, Virginia (June 21, 2017). "Celebrating a Century of Folklore at WKU".
  6. ↑ "Erika Brady | University Press of Mississippi". www.upress.state.ms.us.
  7. ↑ Library of Congress Information Bulletin July-August 2003: Vol 62 Iss 7-8. Superintendent of Government Documents. 2003.
  8. ↑ Lindeman, Kathryn (1980-02-03). "Sacred Indian songs live again". The Billings Gazette. p. 35. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  9. ↑ Pulitzer, Joseph (1981-09-06). "Recapturing sound of Missouri's French past". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 41. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  10. ↑ Reviews of A Spiral Way
  11. ↑ Lybarger, David L. (2004). "Review of Healing Logics: Culture and Medicine in Modern Health Belief Systems". Western Folklore. 63 (4): 326–329. ISSN   0043-373X. JSTOR   25474694.
  12. ↑ "From Roots Music to Classical to Jazz". Bowling Green Living. August 15, 2018.
  13. ↑ Thomason, Don. "Erika Brady". The Amplifier.
  14. ↑ "Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section - American Folklore Society". www.afsnet.org. 8 February 2021.
  15. ↑ Heussner, Ki Mae (August 6, 2009). "Full Moon Myths and Madness". ABC News.
  16. ↑ Loyal, Taylor (2002-10-30). "Western professor gets to the roots of music, culture". The Park City Daily News. pp.  , . Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  17. ↑ "Folk studies prof at WKU wins arts award". The Park City Daily News. 2011-10-04. pp. B2. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  18. ↑ "Folk Belief and Religious Folklife". The American Folklore Society. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
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