Bauman, Richard 1940-

views updated

Bauman, Richard 1940-

PERSONAL:

Born October 28, 1940, in New York, NY; son of Joseph and Zaphrirah Judith Bauman; married Beverly J. Stoeltje, November 26, 1977; children: Mark, Andrew, Gretchen, Rachael. Education: University of Michigan, B.A., 1961; Indiana University, M.A., 1962; University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1968.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Anthropology Department, Student Bldg. 130, 701 E. Kirkwood Ave., Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Author, editor, professor, and folklore scholar. University of Texas, Austin, faculty member, 1968-86, director of the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 1970-86, professor, 1976-86; Indiana University, Bloomington, professor, 1986—, chair of the department of folklore and ethnomusicology, 1986-91, distinguished professor, 1991, director of the Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, 1992. Chair of the Folklife Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Institution.

MEMBER:

American Folklore Society (executive secretary and treasurer, 1972-76; editor 1981-85); Semiotic Society of America (president, 1980-81), American Anthropological Association, American Ethnological Society, Society of Linguistic Anthropology (executive board, 1985-87; president, 1991-93).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright fellow, 1963; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1978; Guggenheim fellow, 1990; Edward Sapir Book Prize, Society for Linguistic Anthropology, 2006, for Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality; Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring Award of the University Graduate School, Indiana University.

WRITINGS:

For the Reputation of Truth; Politics, Religion, and Conflict among the Pennsylvania Quakers, 1750-1800, Johns Hopkins Press (Baltimore, MD), 1971.

Verbal Art as Performance, Newbury House Publishers (Rowley, MA), 1978.

Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1983.

Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Charles L. Briggs) Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

A World of Others' Words: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Intertextuality, Blackwell (Malden, MA), 2004.

EDITOR

(With Americo Paredes) Toward New Perspectives in Folklore, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1972.

(With Joel Sherzer) Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1974, 2nd edition, 1989.

(With Joel Sherzer) Language and Speech in American Society: A Compilation of Research Papers in Sociolinguistics, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (Austin, TX), 1980.

(With Roger D. Abrahams) "And Other Neighborly Names": Social Process and Cultural Image in Texas Folklore, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1981.

Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments: A Communications-Centered Handbook, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

(And author of introduction) Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border, CMAS Books (Austin, TX), 1993.

Has been the editor of the Journal of American Folklore. Member of editorial boards.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author, editor, professor, and folklore scholar, Richard Bauman has several books to his credit. In a profile of the author on the Indiana University Web site, an anonymous contributor noted that Bauman's "scholarly contributions have transcended conventional academic boundaries," adding that he is "best known for his theoretical and methodological contributions to the ethnographic study of language and performance." Bauman began his academic career at the University of Michigan, graduating with a B.A. in 1961. He then attended Indiana University, receiving an M.A. in 1962, and subsequently attending the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his Ph.D. in 1968. Since then, Bauman has worked at the University of Texas, serving as a faculty member from 1968 to 1986, and as a director of the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from 1970 to 1986. Bauman next joined Indiana University, where, as of 2008, he still serves as a professor. He has also served as the chair of the department of folklore and ethnomusicology and as director of the Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies for the university.

Bauman has remained active in several scholarly groups throughout his career, including the American Folklore Society, the Semiotic Society of America, the American Anthropological Association, and the Society of Linguistic Anthropology. He has also served as the editor of the Journal of American Folklore. Bauman's first full-length publication, For the Reputation of Truth; Politics, Religion, and Conflict among the Pennsylvania Quakers, 1750-1800, was released in 1971. The following year, Bauman edited Toward New Perspectives in Folklore with Americo Paredes. Other scholarly works that Bauman has coedited include Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking and Language and Speech in American Society: A Compilation of Research Papers in Sociolinguistics (both books were edited with Joel Sherzer).

As a sole author, Bauman has written such works as Verbal Art as Performance and Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers, published in 1978 and 1983, respectively. A few years later, Bauman released Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative. Following a seventeen-year hiatus, in which Bauman focused on his professorial career and on his editing, the author returned to writing in 2003. That year, his book Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality, written with Charles L. Briggs, was published. The volume was widely acclaimed, earning the Edward Sapir Book Prize from the Society for Linguistic Anthropology in 2006. Voices of Modernity discusses the evolution of language across Scotland, England, France, Germany, and even the United States. This focus is used as a means of pinpointing the beginning of the modern era. Commencing with discussion of the seventeenth century, the book explores how linguistics in the reigning literature and philosophies of the time influenced cultural ideas, ushering in the modern age. In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, critic Ralph Grillo gave the book a positive review. Indeed, Grillo stated that the book's "scope is enormous and I can think of no one who has covered the terrain … in such breadth and depth." Grillo added that Voices of Modernity "is one of the best accounts of language ideology I have encountered, with many intriguing asides (for instance on relativism, or the public sphere). It will repay close attention for a long time to come, and raise a host of questions."

Like Voices of Modernity, A World of Others' Words: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Intertextuality, published in 2004, was also acclaimed. The book discusses folklore from various cultures, including Irish, Icelandic, and Canadian. Bauman compares the linguistics and the anthropological implications of the various oral traditions of these, and other, cultures. As Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute contributor Michael Silverstein noted, Bauman's "own masterful exegetical and comparative treatment in each case emphasizes the structure, function, and meaning of these performances using an analytic vocabulary that draws increasingly on contemporary linguistic anthropology."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, March 1, 1988, Patricia Waterman, review of Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative, p. 220; September 1, 1993, Donal Carbaugh, review of Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments: A Communications-Centered Handbook, p. 736.

American Historical Review, February 1, 1985, Hugh Barbour, review of Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers, p. 129.

Canadian Bar Review, March 1, 1997, "Explorations in Difference: Law, Culture and Politics."

English Historical Review, January 1, 1987, William Lamont, review of Let Your Words Be Few, p. 214.

Hispanic American Historical Review, August 1, 1994, Jesus F. De La Teja, review of Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border, p. 497.

Journal of American Folklore, July 1, 1988, Katherine Young, review of Story, Performance, and Event.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June 1, 2004, Ralph Grillo, review of Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality, p. 463; March 1, 2006, Michael Silverstein, review of A World of Others' Words: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Intertextuality, p. 225.

Law and Social Inquiry, January 1, 2005, Howard S. Erlanger, review of Voices of Modernity, p. 228.

Quarterly Journal of Speech, February 1, 1990, review of Let Your Words Be Few, p. 94.

Social Anthropology, June 1, 2006, Anna Horolets, review of A World of Others' Words, p. 274.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly, July 1, 1994, Manuel Pena, review of Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border, p. 155.

Western Folklore, July 1, 1995, John H. McDowell, review of Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border, p. 245; June 22, 2006, Roger D. Abrahams, review of Voices of Modernity, p. 329.