Diane Tye

Dr. Diane Tye is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She holds a B.A. from Mount Allison University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Memorial University. Her research focuses on women's engagement with folklore, particularly in everyday life, foodways, and regional cultural practices. She authored Baking as Biography: A Life Story in Recipes (2010), recipient of the Elli Köngäs-Maranda Book Prize, and co-edited Unsettling Assumptions: Tradition, Gender, Drag (2014) and Undisciplined Women: Tradition and Culture in Canada (1996). Her work examines topics like food symbolism (lobster, molasses), family narratives, and cultural rituals such as Christmas mummering.

Dr. Tye has contributed to journals including Journal of American Folklore and Western Folklore, and served on the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society (AFS), as co-editor of Digest (AFS Foodways Section), and as president of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada. Her research bridges food studies, gender studies, and cultural anthropology, emphasizing the intersection of memory, identity, and tradition.

Notable publications include explorations of bachelorette parties, childhood memory narratives, and Newfoundland’s culinary identity. Her work often highlights how food and folklore shape personal and communal identity, with a regional focus on Atlantic Canada.