DrTiber Falzett

Teaching folklore and ethnology in departments of English, History and Celtic Studies has revealed the importance of oral expression in getting to the heart of lesser-explored but integral areas of enquiry in these disciplines. It also brings home the need to emphasize that so much of human expression is realized through real-life shared social experience, especially in marginalized and endangered linguistic communities. Indeed, the ability to pass on such knowledge as gained from person-to-person interactions in relating to cultural expression and identity through such lived reference points is a chief reason why these approaches form the heart of my teaching philosophy.

Experiences with students in the classroom and in undertaking fieldwork have confirmed the need for an integrated approach toward teaching various forms of folklore, especially when expressed within minoritized and, as a result, often endangered cultural contexts. This is made expressly evident by way of opportunities presented to reconnect, and in many cases connect for the first time, students with traditions in their own communities and families. In so doing, the work in the classroom is often taken to the field, allowing students to set unique forms of cultural expression in personally relatable frameworks that result in intellectual empowerment in everyday life.