Professor Mark Bender, (Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and affiliate of the Center for Folklore Studies), presented the Richard M. Dorson Memorial Lecture in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University on March 27. He presented “'Offspring of Snow': Poetry as a Vehicle for Cultural Heritage."

This lecture is held annually in memory of Dr. Richard M. Dorson (1916-1981), one of the most influential and prolific folklorists of the 20^th century and the founder of the world-famous Folklore Institute (now a department) at Indiana University, Bloomington, a program with strong ties to the OSU Center for Folklore Studies.  

As part of the two-day event, Bender visited Professor Jason Jackson’s class on “Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif.” The tables turned as he was grilled for five hours (including lunch) by an inquisitive cohort of graduate students about his research and translation experiences.  Such extensive interaction with students is an important priority of the event donors.

While introducing Dr. Bender, Jackson noted that he “is world renowned as a student of ethnopoetics who has done more than anyone to help make accessible, and to contextualize and promote appreciation of, the verbal arts of the minority peoples of Southwest China and, in more recent work, of Northeast India as well.” 

Jackson also noted that Bender has “trained some of the most important and impactful folklorists working today.”  These folklorists include OSU alumni Levi Gibbs (Dartmouth College), Timothy Thurston (University of Leeds), Ziying You (University of Georgia) and Mario DeGrandis (University of Florence, Italy).  

A reception was held following the lecture. This visit to Indiana University was the second trip in two weeks, as Bender presented a paper entitled “Lands and Lives in Yi epics and Popol Vuh: Juxtapositions” at the landmark Epic Geography Symposium, March 20-21.  

These events at IU come in the wake of Bender receiving the Kenneth S. Goldstein Award for Lifetime Academic Leadership from American Folklore Society last October. Bender was also awarded the Amaini and Gamo Aniu Poetry Award from Ebian County, Sichuan Province in November of 2025 for his contributions to the study and translation of poetry and folklore of the Yi ethnic minority group in southwest China. Bender is the first foreign scholar to receive this award.  

Bender also received a Certificate of Appreciation for his “Expert Address” entitled “Eco-genealogy and Origin Epics in the Eastern Himalayas: A Case Study,” at the International Seminar on Folk Narratives in Indian Literary and Performative Traditions, organized by the Department of English at Motilal Nehru College in February 2026.