Dow, James R(aymond) 1936-

views updated

DOW, James R(aymond) 1936-

PERSONAL: Born January 2, 1936 in D'Lo, MS. Education: Attended Tougaloo College, 1956-57; Mississippi College, B.A., 1957; attended Guteberg Universität, 1957-59; attended Middlebury College, 1959; University of Iowa, M.A., 1961, Ph.D., 1966; attended Indiana University, 1968; attended University of California, Los Angeles, 1970-71.

ADDRESSES: Home—503 Lafayette Ave., Story City, IA 50248-1421. Offıce—Iowa State University, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, 300 East Pearson, Ames, IA 50011-2205. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and scholar. University of Iowa, Iowa City, instructor in German, 1964-66; University of Wyoming, Laramie, assistant professor of German, 1966-70; Iowa State University, Ames, assistant professor, 1971-74, associate professor, 1974-80, professor of German, 1980—, chair of department of foreign languages and literatures, 1991-97, chair of linguistics program, 1998-2004. Visiting professor in Millstatt, Austria, 1973; St. Radegund, Austria, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, and 1985; Universität Essen, Germany, 1990; and Universität Bremen, Germany, 2003. Modern Language Association, chair of advisory committee to MLA International Bibliography, 1989-92 and 1993.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grant, Skaggs Foundation, 1988; named distinguished foreign-language alumnus, Mississippi College, 1995; Iowa Regents' Award for faculty excellence, 2003.

WRITINGS:

(Translator) Mark Azadovskii, Eine Sibirische Märchenerzählerin, introduction by Robert A. Geroges, University of Texas, (Austin, TX), 1974.

(Editor and translator, with Hannjost Lixfield) German Volkskunde: A Decade of Theoretical Confrontation, Debate, and Reorientation (1967-1977), Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1986.

Language and Ethnicity, J. Benjamins Publishing (Philadelphia, PA), 1991.

(Editor, with Thomas Stolz and others) Sprachminoritüten/Minoritätensprachen, N. Brockmeyer (Bochum, Germany), 1991.

(Editor, with Michèle Wolff) Languages and Lives: Essays in Honor of Werner Enninger, P. Lang (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, with Olaf Bockhorn) Reinhard Schmook, "Gesunkenes Kulturgut—primitive Gemeinschaft": Der Germanist Hans Naumann (1886-1951) in seiner Bedeutung für die Volkskunde, Riegelnik (Vienna, Austria), 1993.

(Editor and translator, with Hannjost Lixfield) The Nazification of an Academic Discipline: Folklore in the Third Reich, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1994.

(Editor, with Werner Enninger and Joachim Raith) Old and New World Anabaptists: Studies on the Language, Culture, Society, and Health of the Amish and Mennonites, Universität Essen (Essen, Germany), 1994.

(Editor and translator) Hannjost Lixfield, Folklore and Fascism: The Reich Institute for German Volkskunde, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1994.

(Editor, with Wolfgang Jacobeit, Hannjost Lixfeld, and Olaf Bockhorn) Völkische Wissenschaft? Gestalten und Tendenzen in der deutschen und österreichischen Volkskunde in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, Böhlau (Vienna, Austria), 1994.

(Editor) Anthony S. Mercatante, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, 2nd edition, Facts on File (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Olaf Bockhorn) The Study of European Ethnology in Austria, Ashgate (Burlington, VT), 2004.

Editor of Internationale Volkskundliche Bibliographie, 1978-88. Guest editor of International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Volume 68, number 6 and Volume 69, number 1; and jubilee edition of Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 50, number 1. Contributor to books, including Culture and Civilization of the German-speaking States, edited by Gerhard Weiss, University of Northern Iowa Press (Cedar Falls, IA), 1975; and Encyclopedia of Modern German History, edited by Dieter K. Buse and Jürgen Doerr, Garland Press (New York, NY), 1998. Contributor to periodicals, including Asian Folklore Studies, Journal of American Folklore, and Keystone Folklore Quarterly. Contributor of scholarly articles to periodicals, including Keystone Folklore Quarterly, New York Folklore Quarterly, Tennesee Folklore Society Bulletin, International Folklore Review, and International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Editing A Cymbrian Grammar, by Bruno Schweizer.

SIDELIGHTS: James R. Dow, a professor of German at Iowa State University, has published extensively on European and American folklore, particularly German folklore. Dow is the coeditor and cotranslator of The Nazification of an Academic Discipline: Folklore in the Third Reich, and he edited and translated Folklore and Fascism: The Reich Institute for German Volkskunde. Dow also served as editor for the second edition of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, published in 2003.

Both The Nazification of an Academic Discipline and Folklore and Fascism examine the role of folklorists during the Third Reich. According to Richard F. Szippl in Asian Folklore Studies, the thesis of the books is that German folklore "was hijacked by National Socialism," thus subverting its scholarly and ethical principles. "This flies directly in the face of the commonly held notion that there were two distinct folklores in Nazi Germany—a legitimate, scholarly folklore coexisting alongside an ideologically perverted, methodologically compromised National Socialist folklore," Szippl added. "The strength of this notion . . . made it possible for the discipline of folklore in the German-speaking countries to largely avoid coming to terms with the relationship of folklore and National Socialism." Szippl praised the essays in The Nazification of an Academic Discipline, stating, "The publication of these translations will go a long way towards opening the debate to English-reading circles."

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend includes entries of "nearly 3000 myths and legends from around the world," wrote Library Journal reviewer Richard K. Burns. First published in 1988, the work was expanded to two volumes by Dow, who added new entries, cross-references, and bibliographic citations. According to School Library Journal contributor Ann G. Brouse, the revised version of the book "takes on a fresh face and shape" under Dow's editorship.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Folklore Studies, October, 1996, Richard F. Szippl, review of The Nazification of an Academic Discipline: Folklore in the Third Reich, p. 329.

Booklist, July, 2004, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, p. 1863.

Journal of Modern History, March, 1998, Suzanne Marchand, review of Folklore and Fascism: The Reich Institute for German Volkskunde, p. 108.

Library Journal, April 15, 2004, Richard K. Burns, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, p. 75.

School Library Journal, August, 2004, Ann G. Brouse, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, p. 58.