Patricia Sawin facts for kids
Patricia Elizabeth Sawin (born December 3, 1956) is an American folklorist who focuses her research and teaching on informal narrative, festival, folklore theory, and the culture of adoptive families. She is an associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she coordinates the MA program in Folklore. She is a member of the executive board of the American Folklore Society.
Early life
Sawin was born December 3, 1956, in Boulder, Colorado, to Marilynn Daisy Skidmore Sawin and Horace Lewis Sawin. Her father was a member of the English Department, a specialist in Victorian Literature with an early interest in computing in the humanities, and later Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her mother taught Composition for the Department of English, later worked for the Film Studies program, and helped to establish the program in Women and Gender Studies. She has one sister, Barbara Lewis Sawin Donaldson.
Sawin attended public schools in Boulder for most of her K-12 years, but studied in the 9th grade at Cheltenham Ladies' College, Cheltenham, England, and the 12th grade at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1974.
She became interested in the study of traditional culture because of her childhood fascination with fairy tales and her participation as a teenager in international folk dancing. She was an avid hiker in the Colorado mountains and a competitive swimmer.
Education
- Yale University, BA cum laude with honors in English (1974-1978)
- University of Texas at Austin, MA Anthropology with a Concentration in Folklore (1983-1986)
- Indiana University, PhD Folklore (1986-1993)
