Folklore in the United States and Canada

"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