Scope and Contents
The collection consists of film, video and audiotapes, and papers related to Sherman’s fieldwork, other research, publications, correspondence, and teaching, from 1966 through 2010.
Dates
- 1966-2013
Creator
- University of Oregon (Organization)
- Sherman, Sharon R. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
Sharon Sherman, Professor Emerita (since 2008) of English and Folklore at the University of Oregon, is a well-known folklorist who demonstrated the importance and pioneered the expertise of folkloristic filmmaking. She was born in Toronto (April 16, 1943) but her family soon moved to Detroit. She attended Monteith College at Wayne State University, where she took a folklore class with Ellen Steckert and wrote her senior thesis on Anglo-American ballad scholarship. She received her PhB in Latin and Science of Society in 1965.
Sherman taught public school from 1964 to 1968 in Detroit and surrounding areas. She went to UCLA to pursue an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology, which she was awarded with in 1971. While there, she met her future husband, Steven J. Zibelman, a musician who is credited as a sound- or cameraman on some of her films. They have a son, Michael, who is a middle school teacher and drummer. Sherman participated in UCLA’s Ethnographic Film Program, which gave her access to equipment and an editing room. She took a class with filmmaker Jorge Preloran (and she later worked as camerawoman on his television series, Patagonia, 1992). She made her first film, Tales of the Supernatural, in 1970: this was the first film ever made by an academically-trained folklorist. Sherman went to Indiana University for her PhD in Folklore; her dissertation, directed by Richard Dorson, was titled, “The Folkloric Film: The Relevance of Film for Understanding Folkloric Events” (1978).
From her appointment as Assistant Professor of English and Folklore in 1976, Sherman spent her career at the University of Oregon. She became an Associate Professor in 1981, full Professor in 1994, and Professor Emerita in 2008. From 1985 through 2006, she served as Director of both the Folklore Program and the Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore. For part of this time, she was the only fulltime folklorist in the department. The courses she taught include Introduction to Folklore, Film and Folklore, Folklore Fieldwork, Film and Video Production for Folklore Fieldwork, American Folklore, Narrative Theory, American Popular Culture, the History of Folklore Theory and Research, etc. Sherman received the University’s Rippey Teaching Innovation Award four times. She also served diligently on many university committees and as director of numerous student projects including student-made videos.
The subjects of Sherman’s teaching, her books, and her films all overlap and reinforce each other. Her books include Chainsaw Sculptor (1995), Documenting Ourselves (1998, 2006), and Folklore / Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture (co-edited with Mikel J. Koven, 2007). She published articles on a variety of subjects including folklore pedagogy, reflections on the subjects of her own and other people’s films, and folklore in popular culture such as video games, films, and hip-hop music. Much of her research focused on subjects suitable for filming such as folk art, ethnicity, and ritual; nevertheless, she was also interested in the nature and history of folklore as an academic discipline.
Sherman’s films and videos include Kathleen Ware, Quiltmaker (1979), Passover: A Celebration (1981), Spirits in the Wood (1991), Kid Shoes (2001), and Whatever Happened to Zulay (2012, a sequel to a film by Preloran and his wife, Mabel), which were screened at general and folklore film festivals and on other occasions. Sherman was influential (along with Tom Davenport and Daniel Patterson) in establishing the Folkstreams website, “a national preserve of documentary films about roots cultures.” In her reviews of many folklore-related films, and through her writings on film for folklore journals and handbooks and encyclopedias, she articulated the usefulness of film in the documentation and interpretation of folklore and helped to define professional practices in this emerging area.
Sherman was active in the American Folklore Society and in the Western States Folklore Society; she served as film review editor for these and other folklore journals. An effective and lively lecturer, she delivered many papers at conventions and conferences. She also promoted the field of folklore by making herself available for newspaper and radio interviews and by serving as a consultant on various arts and humanities projects, and by giving presentations on a wide variety of subjects (floodways, ritual, folk art, etc.) to community groups as well as through the Oregon Council for the Humanities Chautauqua program.
Extent
25 linear feet (34 containers) : 25 manuscript boxes, 5 flat manuscript boxes, 3 record storage boxes, 1 oversize box
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Sharon Sherman was a professor of English and Folklore at the University of Oregon. From 1976 to 2008 she taught courses and produced films and videos about folklore subjects. Her work—books, articles, reviews, and committee work in addition to her films—gave folkloric film a new prominence and led to its recognition as a valid form of academic research. The collection contains teaching and research files as well as film, video and audio recordings and correspondence.
Arrangement
Collection is organized into the following series:
Series I: Teaching Files
Subseries A: Film and fieldwork
Subseries B: Folklore Theory
Subseries C: Myth
Subseries D: English 250
Subseries E: American folklore
Series II: Department Records: Promotion Files and Folklore Departmental Files
Series III: Correspondence
Series IV: Recommendations, Reviews, and Proposals
Series V: Publications and Subject Files
Subseries A: Articles
Subseries B: Reviews of Films and Books
Subseries C: Lectures and Presentations
Subseries D: American Folklore Society Meetings
Subseries E: Documenting Ourselves (book)
Subseries F: Folklore/Cinema (co-edited book, 2007)
Subseries G: Subject files
Series VI: Other Professional Activities
Series VII: Film Files
Subseries A: Tales of the Supernatural
Subseries B: Kathleen Ware, Quiltmaker
Subseries C: Passover: A Celebration
Subseries D: Spirits in the Wood
Subseries E: Film Files
Subseries F: Oversize
Series VIII: Films, Videos and Audio
Subseries A: Lecture
Subseries B: Film: Tales of the Supernatural
Subseries C: Film: Kathleen Ware, Quiltmaker
Subseries D: Video: Passover: A Celebration
Subseries E: Video: Spirits in the Wood
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Sharon Sherman.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Christine Goldberg.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Audiocassettes Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Correspondence Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Documentary films -- Production and direction Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Education, Higher -- Oregon -- Eugene Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Folk art -- Northwest, Pacific Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Folklore -- Study and teaching (Higher) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Folklore and Folklife Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Folklorists Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Moving images Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Proposals Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Quilting Subject Source: Local sources
- Universities and colleges -- Oregon -- Eugene Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Videocassettes Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Ware, Kathleen
- Title
- Guide to the Sharon Sherman Papers
- Status
- Complete Description
- Author
- Christine Goldberg
- Date
- 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository