Antone Minard

I am a recent arrival in Vancouver, having come north from California where I received my PhD in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA. I was born and raised in San Diego, which is a lot like Vancouver only slightly drier. Imagine trying to get by on only 156 mm of rain per year! (Vancouver is 1117, give or take.)

My specialty is Celtic languages and literature. After completing my PhD I lived for a while in Aberystwyth, Wales, where I was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. We published An Atlas for Celtic Studies: Archaeology and Names in Ancient Europe and Early Medieval Britain and Brittany and an encyclopedia called Celtic Culture. Locally, I am working with the Centre for Scottish Studies to offer some courses in that area, and planning to offer a Welsh language course through the Vancouver Welsh Society.

Outside of Celtic Studies, I have a strong interest in other traditions’ folk narrative (myths, legends, and folktales) and folk beliefs, especially superstitions and beliefs about the natural world. There is a thin line between “strong interest” and “obsessive book collector,” and I think I may have crossed it.