AMES, Iowa -- James Dow, professor of foreign languages and literatures at Iowa State University, has been named a Fellow of the American Folklore Society, Columbus, Ohio.
An internationally recognized scholar in German folklore, Dow has devoted his research to writing the history of German and Austrian folklore, including its complicity with National Socialist ideology.
Dow has documented how National Socialist ideology appropriated folklore studies to define a "pure" and "continuing" Germanic race in his books "The Nazification of an Academic Discipline, Folklore and Fascism" and in the German book "Volkische Wissenschaft."
Dow edited the activities of folklorists in Europe and the United States in two major series, including the International Volkskundliche Bibliographie (International Folklore Bibliography) and was co-section editor of the folklore volume of the Modern Languages Association International Bibliography. He initiated computerization of the International Folklore Bibliography and created a tri-lingual (German, French and English) index for it.
His latest book, "The Study of European Ethnology in Austria," was published last April.
Dow will be honored in October at the society's meeting in Salt Lake City. Fellows in the 2,200-member society are an honorary body of folklorists, recognized for their individual contributions to the field.