Erika Brady is an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

, writer, speaker, and radio show host. She is a past-president of the Kentucky Folklore Society Fellows and editor of the journal ''Southern Folklore''.

Career

Brady studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. She taught anthropology at

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

beginning in 1989 and, as of 2022, has retired from teaching. Brady was the editor of ''Southern Folklore'', a journal published by the University Press of Kentucky, from 1992 though 2000. She was the president of the Kentucky Folklore Society Fellows in 2015. She worked for the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

helping preserve and make available its collection of

wax cylinder Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low ...

recordings. Her work at the Library of Congress helped transfer audio tracks from wax cylinders onto tapes that could be preserved for future listeners, including songs from Native Americans and French folk songs sung in Missouri. Her book, ''A Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography'', was about the impact of phonograph technology on ethnography and another about

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

methodologies. She has also written about healing in ''Healing Logics: Culture and Medicine in Modern Health Belief Systems'' which was reviewed by the ''Western States Folklore Society.''

Outreach

Brady hosts the folk music radio show Barren River Breakdown on

WKYU-FM WKYU-FM (88.9 Hertz, MHz) is a public radio, public commercial radio, non-commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Bowling Green, Kentucky. The station is owned by Western Kentucky University, and is the flagship (broadcasting), flag ...

. She co-hosted and eventually took over hosting of the radio show Barren River Breakdown which began in 1997. In 2015 she delivered the

American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible ...

Don Yoder Don Yoder (August 27, 1921– August 11, 2015) was an American folklorist specializing in the study of Pennsylvania Dutch, Quaker, and Amish and other Anabaptist folklife in Pennsylvania who wrote at least 15 books on these subjects. A professor em ...

Lecture in Religious Folklife with a speech titled “A Subtle Thing Withal”: Reflections on the Ineffable, the Unspeakable, and the Risible in Vernacular Religion". In 2010 about the significance of full moons in folkways with ABC News.

Bibliography

* * *

Awards and honors

In 2002, Brady received the Acorn Award from the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education. In 2011 she received a Kentucky Governor's Award in the Arts for her work bringing regional music to Kentucky. In 2015, Brady gave the Don Yoder lecture at the

's annual meeting.

References

External links

*, Don Yoder lecture at the American Folklore Society's annual meeting *, August 9, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brady, Erika Living people Harvard University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Indiana University alumni Western Kentucky University faculty Women anthropologists Folklorists Year of birth missing (living people)