Albert Lord and the Study of Oral Traditions
Presentation by John Miles Foley
February 10, 2011
2 pm, Ellis Library Colonnade
This presentation honors the landmark achievements of Albert Bates Lord, one of the founders of the field of studies in oral tradition, and celebrates the generous donation of his and Mary Louise Lord’s personal libraries by their sons Nathan and Mark and their families to the University of Missouri. It will trace the roots of Lord’s research and scholarship in contemporary anthropology and philology, as well as discuss the spread of this comparative approach to more than 150 language traditions from the ancient world to the present day. Audio examples of Lord’s fieldwork collections in the Former Yugoslavia will illustrate the talk.