[1][2][3][4] Stekert is a Professor Emerita of English at the University of Minnesota and a former president of the American Folklore Society.

[1][7][8][9] Stekert attended Cornell University, where she took classes taught by the folklorist Harold Thompson, whom she also assisted in teaching.

[10] As her interest in folklore grew, Stekert began doing fieldwork, collecting folksongs from traditional singers in upstate New York.

[11] After graduating in philosophy at Cornell, Stekert began a Masters degree in folklore at Indiana University.

There, Stekert built upon the pioneering work of Thelma G. James in the collection of urban folklore traditions.