Margaret Mills

Margaret Ann Mills (born 1946) is an American folklorist, and educator. She is a professor emerita of the Department of Near East Languages and Cultures at Ohio State University. Early life and education Margaret Mills was born on November 9, 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was raised in Seattle, Washington, where her Italian-born mother was raised. Although both of her parents were physicians, Mills's interests carried her in a different direction. Margaret Mills graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1968 with a B.A. degree in general studies. She received a PhD (1978) from Harvard University in Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Languages and Culture, with Cultural Anthropology. Mills's dissertation, Oral Narrative in Afghanistan: The Individual in Tradition, was directed by Albert Bates Lord, main proponent of the widely influential oral theory of epic composition. Work history Mills's field research has focused on folklore of Persia, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Tajikistan, and Pakistan. She has conducted research on the impact of gender in storytelling found within certain cultures.