Ellen Stekert

Ellen Stekert (b. 1935) is an American academic, folklorist and musician.[1][2][3][4] Stekert is a Professor Emerita of English at the University of Minnesota.[5]

Early life and education

Stekert was born in New York City in 1935 and grew up in Great Neck on Long Island.[6] She survived polio as a child.[2] Stekert began performing folk music in high school and has recorded several albums.[1][7][8][9]

Stekert attended Cornell University, where she took classes taught by the folklorist Harold Thompson, who she also assisted in teaching.[10] As her interest in folklore grew, Stekert began doing fieldwork, collecting folksongs from traditional singers in upstate New York.[1] The songs Stekert collected from Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight, a retired lumberjack from Cohocton, New York, she recorded and released as Songs of a New York Lumberjack in 1958.[11]

After graduating in philosophy at Cornell, Stekert began a Masters degree in folklore at Indiana University.[12] There she continued her fieldwork, collecting folk songs in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. On completion of her M.A., Stekert began research for a Ph.D. in folklore at Indiana. She completed her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia due to the attitude towards her work of her supervisor at Indiana, Richard Dorson.[10] Stekert completed her Ph.D. in 1965.[10]

Career

Stekert's first teaching position was at Wayne State University in Detroit. There, Stekert built upon the pioneering work of Thelma G. James in the collection of urban folklore traditions.[13]

From there, she moved to the University of Minnesota where she was based for the rest of her academic career.[1]

Recognition

Stekert served as president of the American Folklore Society for the year 1977.[14][15] She was also appointed Minnesota's state folklorist.[1]

Selected publications

Stekert, Ellen (1963). "The Hidden Informant". Midwest Folklore. 13 (1): 21–28. ISSN 0544-0750.

Stekert, Ellen (1959). "Fairy Palace". Western Folklore. 18 (1): 50–50. doi:10.2307/1496903 ISSN 0043-373X

Stekert, Ellen J. (1970). "Foreword: The Urban Experience and Folk Tradition". The Journal of American Folklore. 83 (328): iii–iv. ISSN 0021-8715

Stekert, Ellen J. (1970-04). "Focus for Conflict: Southern Mountain Medical Beliefs in Detroit". The Journal of American Folklore. 83 (328): 115. doi:10.2307/539101

Paredes, Américo and Stekert, Ellen Jane (eds.) (1971) The urban experience and folk tradition. . Austin: Published for the American Folklore Society by the University of Texas Press. 1971. ISBN 0-292-70122-5 OCLC 209262

Dorson, R. M., Baker, R. L., Byington, R. H., Carey, G., Georges, R. A., Green, T. A., Stekert, E. J., & Teske, R. T. (1972). The Academic Future of Folklore. The Journal of American Folklore, 85, 104–125. doi:10.2307/539353

Stekert, Ellen J. (1987). "Autobiography of a Woman Folklorist". The Journal of American Folklore. 100 (398): 579–585. doi:10.2307/540915. ISSN 0021-8715

Stekert, Ellen J. (1993). 'Cents and Nonsense in the Urban Folksong Movement: 1930–1966'. In Transforming Tradition, ed. Neil V.Rosenberg. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 84–106.

Selected discography

Stekert, Ellen (1950s) Ozark Mountain folksongs. Vol. 1 Vol. 1, New York, N.Y.: Stinson Records, SLP #49, OCLC 32895997, retrieved 2022-05-30

Stekert, Ellen (c.1957) Ballads of careless love: love songs from Great Britain and the United States,[16] Ithaca, NY: Cornell Recording Society, CRS-10050, OCLC 7332222, retrieved 2022-05-30

Okun, Milt; Stekert, Ellen (1957) Traditional American love songs,[17] New York: Riverside, RLP 12-634, OCLC 53818536, retrieved 2022-05-30

Stekert, Ellen (1958) Songs of a New York lumberjack, Folkways Records - FA 2354, OCLC 50921919, retrieved 2022-05-30

Pete Seeger, Jerry Silverman, The New Lost City Rambler, The Harvesters, Elizabeth Knight, Hermes Nye, Ellen Stekert, Sandy Ives, Bill Macadoo, Bascom Lamar Lunsford. (1963) Songs of the Civil War[18]

References
  1. von Bernewitz, Robert. "Ellen Stekert - Folklorist, Folk Singer and Educator". Musicguy 247. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  2. Poppick, Laura. "Ellen Stekert: Trailblazer". REI. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  3. Aloi, Daniel. "Peter Yarrow '59 leads 'Rompin' good time in Bailey". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  4. "Folklorist Ellen Stekert performs and shares stories from folklore". PRX. WTIP. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  5. "Faculty". University of Minnesota. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  6. "Biography: Ellen Stekert". Allmusic. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  7. "Songs of a New York Lumberjack". Smithsonian. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  8. "Rare Folk - Ellen Stekert "Ballads of Careless Love"". Popsike. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  9. "Ellen Stekert To Give Folksong Concert". The Daily Illini. 7 February 1962. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  10. Stekert, Ellen J. (1987). "Autobiography of a Woman Folklorist". The Journal of American Folklore. 100 (398): 579–585. doi:10.2307/540915. ISSN 0021-8715.
  11. "Songs of a New York Lumberjack". folkways.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
  12. Rosenberg, Neil V. (1 January 2016). "Judith Binkele McCulloh (1935–2014)". Journal of American Folklore. 129 (511): 97–98. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.129.511.0097.
  13. Stekert, Ellen J. "The Wayne State University Folklore Archive: In Process".
  14. "Past AFS Presidents". American Folklore Society. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  15. Stekert, Ellen. "Crying Wolf - The Wolf as Symbol in Folklore". Wolf Song of Alaska. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  16. Ellen Stekert - Ballads Of Careless Love, retrieved 2022-06-02
  17. "Milt Okun and Ellen Stekert – Traditional American Love Songs".
  18. Various - Songs Of The Civil War, Folkways Records - FH 5717, OCLC 3281938, retrieved 2022-06-02
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