Friday,
December 5, 2008

Thompson Room, Barker Center

4:45pm - Welcome

Joseph Harris (Harvard Univ.); Barbara Hillers (Harvard Univ.)

5:00-6:30pm  Keynotes

Emily Lyle (Univ. of Edinburgh),
“’Robin Hood in Barnesdale stood’: A new window on the ‘Gest’ and its precursors”

Anne Dhu McLucas (Univ. of Oregon) ,
“’To the Tune Of . . .’:  The Robin Hood Legacy in Music”

6:30-7:30pm - Dinner Buffet (provided)

7:30 onward - guest set by the famous folksinger Peggy Seeger. For an introduction to her work, see her web site at PegSeeger.com

As the evening goes on, other conference members and visitors are expected to participate (including Maggie Harrison, Matthieu Boyd, Ruth Perry, and Natalie Franz).

Saturday,
December 6, 2008

Thompson Room, Barker Center

8:30am - coffee

9:00-9:45am - Keynote, Chaired by James Engell (Harvard Univ.)

Mary Ellen Brown (Indiana University),
"From Pastiche to Collection:  The Progress of Francis James Child"

9:45-11:00am - Session 1: Francis James Child and Intellectual History

Maureen McLane (New York Univ.)
“Border Troubles: Ballad Mediality and ‘World Literature’”

Steve Newman (Temple Univ.)
"’The Dramatic Situation’ and ‘The Imagined Community’: Tales of the Ballad from Philology to the New Criticism and Beyond”

Ann Rowland (Univ. of Kansas
“The Childish Origin of Literary Studies”

11:00-11:15am - coffee break

11:15-12:30 Session 2: Epic, Ballad, and Song in Southeastern Europe

Chaired by Richard Thomas (Harvard Univ.)

David Elmer (Harvard Univ.)
"The Meaning of Melody: Remarks on the Performance-Based Analysis of Bosniac Epic Song"

Panagiotis Roilos (Harvard Univ.)
"Historical Anthropology and Contemporary Fieldwork on Seventeenth-century Greek Literature"

Dimitrios Yatromanolakis (Harvard Univ.)
“Curses, Prayers, and Gender: On the Sociopolitics of Classical Greek Song-Making”

12:30-1:00pm - Lunch Buffet (provided)

1:00-1:45pm - Keynote over lunch:

Chaired by Larry Syndergaard (Western Michigan Univ.)

Sigrid Rieuwerts (Univ. Mainz)
“’Making a clean sweep of the whole field of Northern ballads’: Harvard, Child, and the Ballads”

1:45-3:00pm - Session 3: Historical Approaches to the Ballad

Ruth Perry (MIT)
“Anna Gordon Brown’s Ballads in the New World”

Tom Hill (Cornell Univ.)
“The ‘Corpus Christi Carol’ and the ‘Canary Prince’/Yonec Tradition”

Jan Ziolkowski (Harvard Univ.)
“Walter of Aquitaine in Spanish Ballad Tradition”

3:00-3:15pm - tea/coffee break

3:15-4:30pm - Session 4: “From the Celtic and Scandinavian Ballad Fringe”

Chaired by Patrick Ford (Harvard Univ.)

Matthieu Boyd (Harvard Univ.)
"Towards a classification of formulaic language and recurrent episodes in the gwerzioù (Breton-language vernacular ballads)"

Barbara Hillers (Harvard Univ.)
"Crossing Language and Cultural Barriers: 'Our Goodman' in Gaelic Scotland and Ireland"

Steve Mitchell (Harvard Univ.)
“’...very dark to me...very clear to you...’: Child, Grundtvig and the North Sea Ballad Community”

4:30-4:45 coffee/tea break

4:45-6:30pm - Session 5: Gender and Genre in the Ballad World

Chaired and steered by Barbara Hillers (Harvard Univ.)

Natalie Franz (Harvard Univ.)
"O Sister, Where Art Thou? Reflections on the Role of Women in the Breton Ballad Tradition."

Maggie Harrison (Harvard Univ.)
"Gender in the Waulking Songs of Mairi nighean Alasdair"

Aida Vidan (Harvard Univ.)
"Gender and Genre in Traditional and Virtual Settings: Examples from the South Slavic Oral
Heritage"

6:30-7:30pm - Closing Reception