In my introductory course, Anthropology 160, the Forms of Folklore, I try to show the students what the major and minor genres of folklore are, and how they can be analyzed.

Americans often have trouble enjoying the present moment.

I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions.

My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.

Future orientation is combined with a notion and expectation of progress, and nothing is impossible.

If a student takes the whole series of my folklore courses including the graduate seminars, he or she should learn something about fieldwork, something about bibliography, something about how to carry out library research, and something about how to publish that research.

Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.