Ray Cashman

Ray Cashman

Professor, Folklore and Ethnomusicology

he/him

Education

  • Ph.D., Indiana University, 2002
  • B.A., Williams College, 1993

Research interests

  • Ireland, UK, North America
  • oral traditions, the ethnography of communication, performance studies
  • vernacular history, social memory, nostalgia
  • tradition and traditionalization
  • politics of culture and identity
  • sense of place and place-making
  • rites of passage, calendar custom, vernacular religion
  • material culture, observances, and beliefs concerning death
  • theory, methodology, and ethics of fieldwork and ethnography

Courses recently taught

  • Irish Folklore
  • Folklore Theory in Practice
  • History of Ideas in Folklore Study: Tradition
  • American Regional Cultures
  • Folklore and Language: The Ethnography of Speaking Folklore

Awards & Distinctions

  • Co-Editor of the “Irish Memory, Culture, and Place” and the “Encounters: Explorations in Folklore and Ethnomusicology” book series for IU Press; past Editor of the Journal of Folklore Research
  • Elected Fellow of the American Folklore Society, 2019
  • Elected Social Science Representative, American Conference for Irish Studies, 2019-2022
  • Michael J. Durkan Prize for Books on Language and Culture, for Packy Jim: Folklore and Worldview on the Irish Border, awarded by the American Conference for Irish Studies, 2017
  • IU Trustees Teaching Award, 2016-2017
  • Elected to the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society, 2010-2013
  • The Chicago Folklore Prize, for Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border, awarded by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago, 2009
  • Donald Murphy Prize, for Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border, awarded by the American Conference for Irish Studies, 2009
  • Frederick W. Conner Prize in the History of Ideas for “Critical Nostalgia and Material Culture in Northern Ireland,” 2005