Colorado State University – Pueblo hosts Folklorist Barbara Yule

Pueblo-  Folklorist Barbara Yule will deliver a lecture-demonstration titled “Oral Tradition and the Folktale: From the Scottish Travelling People to Appalachia” at 2 p.m., Tuesday, March 11 in the Occhiato University Center Hearthwell Lounge on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus.

Yule is a well-known figure in Scottish, Appalachian-Scottish, and Irish Studies for her fieldwork documenting the stories of the Travelling People, including Duncan Williamson and Stanley Robertson. The Barbara McDermitt Collection, which she donated to the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, is an important treasury of folklore that emigrated from Scotland with American settlers who had been displaced from their homeland.

After earning an M.F.A. in theater at Northwestern University in Illinois, Yule earned a Ph.D. in folklore at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies. Founder and director of the Spanish Peaks Celtic Music Festival, she has rich knowledge of folk literary and musical traditions.

Yule is founder of Stories in the Air, which promotes deaf sign storytelling and concerts for adults. She also started the Aspen Theater Institute, a graduate training center for teachers in creative/education drama and dance through the University of Northern Colorado.



Colorado State University - Pueblo is a regional, comprehensive university emphasizing professional, career-oriented, and applied programs. Displaying excellence in teaching, celebrating diversity, and engaging in service and outreach, CSU-Pueblo is distinguished by access, opportunity, and the overall quality of services provided to its students.