Ruth Finnegan

Ruth Hilary Finnegan OBE FBA (born 30 December 1933) is a Northern Irish linguistic anthropologist and Emeritus Professor of the Open University.

She attended Londonderry High School (now Foyle College and The Mount School, York[3] after which she studied Literae humaniores at Somerville College, Oxford and followed this with her PhD in Anthropology.

[1] Her thesis, submitted in 1963 from Nuffield College, Oxford, was titled "The Limba of Sierra Leone with special reference to their folktales or "oral literature"".

[1] She was a lecturer in sociology there until 1972, became reader in comparative social institutes in 1982 and then professor in 1988.

[5] In 2016 she received the Rivers Memorial Medal from the Royal Anthropological Institute.