John Miles Foley

John Miles Foley (January 22, 1947 – May 3, 2012) was a scholar of comparative oral tradition, particularly medieval and Old English literature, Homer and Serbian epic.

[citation needed] He received his bachelor's degree at Colgate University in 1969, with majors in Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry.

[citation needed] Following his doctoral studies, Foley undertook fieldwork in Yugoslavia, confirming and extending prior research on living oral traditions by Milman Parry and Albert Lord.

Based on this fieldwork, he continued the work of Francis P. Magoun in applying findings to other ethnolinguistic areas, as well as refining the theory of Oral-Formulaic Composition.

Foley founded the academic journal Oral Tradition in 1986, converting it to an open access publishing model in 2006.