Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments What first began as a stimulating conversation about tradition in contemporary folkloristics morphed into an exciting conference panel on the subject; ultimately, our extended conversation developed into this book, and its publication has been over four years in the making. As editors, we are indebted to many people for their help in making this volume a reality. First and foremost, we would like to thank the wonderful staff at Utah State University Press and the University Press of Colorado, especially Michael Spooner, Dan Miller, and Laura Furney. John Alley was instrumental in developing the book from a lively panel into an expansive collaborative work. We are grateful to the American Folklore Society for providing an initial forum for exploring this book’s subject matter. As always, we would like to thank our families’ ongoing support at home because that is the private well from which our public expressions draw. Our colleagues reliably provided robust feedback and unwavering moral support, as well as inspiration, through their ideas both in writing and faceto -face. In particular, we would like to thank Donald Allport Bird, Anthony Bak Buccitelli, Charley Camp, Bill Ellis, Tim Evans, Lisa Gabbert, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Spencer Lincoln Green, Robert Georges, Michael Owen Jones, Tim Lloyd, John McDowell, Jay Mechling, Montana Miller, Dorothy Noyes, Andrew Peck, Leonard Primiano, David Puglia, Kate Schramm, Moira Smith, Steve Stanzak, Jeff Tolbert, Elizabeth Tucker, and Daniel Wojcik. Additionally, we are thrilled and honored to have worked with such an esteemed group of contributors, all of whom put a great deal of time and effort into seeing this project through from start to finish. Finally, we would like to especially recognize Bill Ivey. Without his powerful speech at the American Folklore Society conference in 2007 to spur us on, you would not be reading these words today. In his generation or any other, few have done more to forward the field of folklore studies than he. It is our pleasure to dedicate this book to him. Trevor J. Blank Robert Glenn Howard Tradition in the Twenty-First Century ...