Dan Ben-Amos of blessed memory, folklorist, teacher, and dear friend, passed away on March 26, 2023. He is survived by his wife, Batsheva Ben-Amos, his children, and grandchildren. He is remembered as a daring and rigorous scholar, a generous teacher and mentor, a brilliant storyteller, an engaged colleague, and a twinkle-eyed trickster known for his wry humor.
As we write this memorial testimony, we hear Dan's voice engaging us in dialogue and reminding us of what we know about the importance of genre and context. Rather than relying solely on familiar words to describe a distinguished scholar and knowledgeable teacher, his memory points us, instead, toward stories of surprises and wisdom found in unexpected places. We write within the context of being his former students, Amy Shuman in the 1970s, when Professor Ben-Amos had recently arrived at the University of Pennsylvania, and Amy Horowitz in the late 1980s–1990s....
