The American Folklore Society recently made Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, professor of folkloristics, an fellow in the society. Three to four scholars receive this honour annually in recognition of important contributions to the field. An announcement accompanied with coverage of Valdimar’s career, along with other new members can be found on the society’s website.
The American Folklore Society was founded in 1888, and currently has 2,200 members. Among those elected as fellows in the last fifty years are Alan Dundes, Alan Lomax, Albert B. Lord, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbro Klein, Dell Hymes, Henry Glassie, Linda Dégh, Regina Bendix, Richard Bauman og Roger D. Abrahams ásamt Elliott Oring, James Leary, Timothy Tangherlini, and John Lindow. The last four mentioned have served as Fullbright teachers of folkloristics at the University of Iceland in the last twenty years, and John Lithgow was awarded and honorary doctorate from the University of Iceland in 2018.
Valdimar is professor of folkloristics at the University of Iceland. He received his PhD in the field from the University of California in Berkeley in 2004 and has been an active member of the American Society for the past two decades, for example chairing the society’s international committee. Valdimar also chaired SIEF, International Society for Ethnology and Folklore from 2013 til 2017.