Jean Freedman
Jean Freedman
School: Columbian College of Arts and Sciences
Department: RGSLL
Contact:
Jean Freedman has taught in the German program at GW since 2015. She holds a BA
in dramatic art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA and PhD
in folklore from Indiana University. She has taught in departments of English, theater,
history, and women’s studies, in addition to German. Her research interests include folk
music, oral history, and the relationships among culture, history, and politics.
Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics. 2017. Urbana, Illinois: University of
Illinois Press.
Whistling in the Dark: Memory and Culture in Wartime London. 1999. Lexington,
Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.
Selected Articles
"Peggy Seeger."; 2013. In The Grove Dictionary of American Music, second edition.
Oxford University Press.
"The Masquerade of Ideas: The Purimshpil as Theatre of Conflict."; 2011. In
Revisioning Ritual: Jewish Traditions in Transition, edited by Simon J. Bronner, pp. 94-
132. Oxford, England: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
“Never Underestimate the Power of a Bus: My Journey to Oral History.” Oral History
Review Vol. 29, No. 2 (Summer/Fall 2002): 29-31.
"With Child: Illegitimate Pregnancy in Scottish Traditional Ballads."; Folklore Forum Vol.
24, No. 1 (1991): 3-18.