John Miles Foley is a specialist in the world’s oral traditions, with particular emphasis on the ancient Greek, medieval English, and contemporary South Slavic traditions. He serves as W. H. Byler Distinguished Chair in the Humanities, as Curators’ Professor of Classical Studies and English, and as the founding Director of the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition (www.oraltradition.org, 1986-) at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he edits the journal Oral Tradition (now online and open-access at http://journal.oraltradition.org) and two series of books. He is also founding Director of the Center for eResearch (www.e-researchcenter.org, 2004-), which fosters cross-disciplinary internet-related research, at the same institution. His major publications include The Theory of Oral Composition (1988); Traditional Oral Epic (1990); Immanent Art (1991); The Singer of Tales in Performance (1995); Teaching Oral Traditions (1998); Homer’s Traditional Art (1999); How To Read an Oral Poem (2002), which is complemented by the website www.oraltradition.org/hrop; an edition-translation of The Wedding of Mustajbey’s Son Bećirbey (eEdition at http://oraltradition.org/zbm); and A Companion to Ancient Epic (2005); as well as approximately 160 scholarly articles. His last two books have both been awarded the distinction of Outstanding Academic Title from Choice magazine. Foley has given more than 250 invited lectures in China, India, Russia, Mongolia, Japan, various countries in Africa and Europe, and the United States. He has received grants and fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Program, the Mellon Foundation, and other institutions, and is a fellow of the Finnish Folklore Society and the American Folklore Society. He can be reached at FoleyJ@missouri.edu.