Oral Tradition Volume 2, Number 1

About the Authors

Frans Jozef van Beeck

Frans Jozef van Beeck's biography is not available.

Paolo Valesio

Paolo Valesio's biography is not available.

Thomas J. Steele

Thomas J. Steele's biography is not available.

Harold M. Stahmer

Harold M. Stahmer's biography is not available.

Peter Sharratt

Peter Sharratt's biography is not available.

Dennis P. Seniff

Dennis P. Seniff's biography is not available.

Bruce A. Rosenberg

Professor of American Civilization at Brown University, Bruce Rosenberg has long been a significant force at the intersection of folklore and literature, particularly in medieval studies. His article on Leon Forrest stems from a deep interest in African American oral traditions and folk-preaching, as attested for example by his book Can These Bones Live? (1987).

Elias L. Rivers

Elias L. Rivers' biography is not available.

John G. Rechtien

John G. Rechtien's biography is not available.

Walter J. Ong

One of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of study that Oral Tradition serves, Walter J. Ong, now University Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Saint Louis University, has published a brilliant succession of books and articles, among them The Presence of the Word (1967), Interfaces of the Word (1977), Fighting for Life (1981), and Orality and Literacy (1982).

Randolph F. Lumpp

Randolph Lumpp's biography is not available.

Albert B. Lord

Albert B. Lord (Harvard University, Emeritus) truly needs no introduction for anyone working in the field of oral tradition. His comparative research, especially The Singer of Tales (1960), in effect established the Oral Theory as a method subsequently applied to dozens of different traditions. He is near completion of a sequel to that landmark volume.

William J. Kennedy

William J. Kennedy's biography is not available.

Robert Kellogg

Robert Kellogg's biography is not available.

Werner H. Kelber

Werner H. Kelber is the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Cultures at Rice University. His signature work is The Oral and the Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul, and Q (1983; 2nd ed., 1997).

Eric A. Havelock

In 1963 Eric Havelock’s landmark book Preface to Plato revolutionized the way we read both Homer and other ancient Greek literature by making the case for the “oral encyclopedia” of cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs that was “published” in oral performance. A collection of his seminal writings, The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences (1982), has since appeared, as has a fascinating study of the Presocratics (1983). He is Sterling Professor of Classics (Emeritus) at Yale University.

John Miles Foley

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.

Thomas J. Farrell

Thomas J. Farrell's biography is not available.

Ruth El Saffar

Ruth El Saffar's biography is not available.

James M. Curtis

James M. Curtis's biography is not available.