Ruth Finnegan

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Ruth Finnegan

Ruth Hilary Finnegan OBE FBA (b. 30 December 1933) is a Northern Irish linguistic anthropologist and Emeritus Professor of the Open University.[1][2]

Biography

Finnegan was born in 1933 in Derry. She attended Londonderry High School (now Foyle College and The Mount School, York[3] after which she studied Literae humaniores at the University of Oxford and followed this with her PhD in Anthropology.[1] Her thesis, submitted in 1963 from Nuffield College, Oxford, was titled "The Limba of Sierra Leone with special reference to their folktales or "oral literature"".[4]

After teaching social anthropology at the University of Zimbabwe in 1963-1964 and sociology at the University of Ibadan in 1965-1967, Finnegan joined the Open University in 1969 as one of the founding members of academic staff.[1] She was a lecturer in sociology there until 1972, became reader in comparative social institutes in 1982 and then professor in 1988.[5] Finnegan was a visiting professor in anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1989.

Finnegan was elected as Fellow of the British Academy in 1996.[1] She received an OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to Social Sciences. She is an honorary fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.[5] In 2016 she received the Rivers Memorial Medal from the Royal Anthropological Institute.[6]

Select publications

  • Finnegan, R. 2018. "Alternative consciousness", in International Encyclopaedia of Anthropology. Wiley.
  • Finnegan, R. (ed) 2017. Entrancement: The Consciousness of Dreaming, Music and the World. University of Wales Press.
  • Finnegan, R. 2015. Where is Language?: An Anthropologist's Questions on Language, Literature and Performance. Bloomsbury.
  • Finnegan, R. 2014. "Play is serious: children's games, verbal art and creativity in Africa", International Journal of Play.
  • Finnegan, R. (ed) 2005. Participating in the Knowledge Society: Researchers Beyond the University Walls. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Finnegan, R. 2002. Communicating: The Multiple Modes of Human Interconnection. Routledge.
  • Finnegan, R. 1992. Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance and Social Context, 2nd edn. Bloomington IN, Indiana University Press.
  • Finnegan, R. 1989. The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  • Finnegan, R. 1970. Oral literature in Africa. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Professor Ruth Finnegan FBA". British Academy. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Professor Ruth Murray". Open University. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  3. ^ "The British Academy". Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  4. ^ Finnegan, Ruth (1963). The Limba of Sierra Leone with special reference to their folktales or "oral literature" (Thesis). University of Oxford.
  5. ^ a b "Professor Ruth Hilary Finnegan". Somerville College. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  6. ^ "Rivers Memorial Medal Prior Recipients". Retrieved 30 June 2021.
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