Marilyn M. White is an American folklorist who researches African American folklore and family folklore. [1] She conducts research in Little Cayman. [1] White is the president of the American Folklore Society [2] and the long-time president of the Association of African and African American Folklorists. [2] White is also ex officio member of the board of trustees of the American Folklife Center. [1]
White completed a B.A. in English from Hampton University, [2] an M.A. in folklore from Indiana University, [2] and a PhD in anthropology (folklore) from the University of Texas at Austin. [2]
She was a professor of anthropology at Kean University from 1985 to 2011. [2] She also previously taught at Western Kentucky University for eight years. [2]
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.
Alan Jabbour was an American musician and folklorist, and the founding director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
Benjamin Albert Botkin was an American folklorist and scholar.
The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the United States (US)-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible application of that research, publish various forms of publications, advocate for the continued study and teaching of folklore, etc. The Society is based at Indiana University and has an annual meeting every October. The Society's quarterly publication is the Journal of American Folklore. The current president is Marilyn White.
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.
Richard Mercer Dorson was an American folklorist, professor, and director of the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. Dorson has been called the "father of American folklore" and "the dominant force in the study of folklore".
Simon J. Bronner is an American folklorist, ethnologist, historian, sociologist, educator, college dean, and author.
Pravina Shukla is an American folklorist who is Provost Professor of Folklore at Indiana University Bloomington and serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology, Department of American Studies, the Dhar India Studies Program, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is also a consulting curator at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.
Dorothy Noyes is an American folklorist and ethnologist whose comparative, ethnographic and historical research focuses on European societies and upon European immigrant communities in the United States. Beyond its area studies context, her work has aimed to enrich the conceptual toolkit of folklore studies (folkloristics) and ethnology. General problems upon which she has focused attention include the status of "provincial" communities in national and global contexts, heritage policies and politics, problems of innovation and creativity, and the nature of festival specifically and of cultural displays and representations generally.
Roger David Abrahams was an American folklorist whose work focused on the expressive cultures and cultural histories of the Americas, with a specific emphasis on African American peoples and traditions.
Dan Ben-Amos was an Israeli-American folklorist and academic who worked as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he held the Graduate Program Chair for the Department of Folklore and Folklife.
Margaret R. Yocom is a folklorist and poet. Now emerita, she taught at George Mason University from 1977 to 2013 and founded the Folklore Studies Program there. She works in Maine.
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.
Museum folklore is a domain of scholarship and professional practice within the field of folklore studies (folkloristics).
Marta Weigle was an American anthropologist and folklorist.
Judith McCulloh was an American folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and university press editor.
Anne Grimes was an American journalist, musician and historian of American folklore. An Ohio folksinger, she collected and performed traditional songs now preserved in the Anne Grimes Collection in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. She also collected vintage dulcimers and other instruments now housed in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., in 1997. Grimes was a classically trained vocalist and accomplished pianist among other musical pursuits.
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".
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.
C. Kurt Dewhurst is an American curator and folklorist. Dewhurst is Director for Arts and Cultural Partnerships at Michigan State University (MSU) and also a Senior Fellow in University Outreach and Engagement. At MSU, he is also Director Emeritus of the Michigan State University Museum and a Professor of English and Museum Studies.