Welcome to the Myth Collaborative

The Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative exists because of the vision, scholarship, and lifelong dedication of Professor Emerita Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, Professor of English and founder of IUP’s interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Myth, Folklore, Legend, and Archetypal Studies. From 1967 to 2003, Professor Roffman transformed the study of myth at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She taught mythology, literature, creative writing, and Asian studies while developing interdisciplinary courses that connected myth with psychology, anthropology, folklore, film, and the arts. She also founded IUP’s Asian Studies program and established the myth journal ARISTEIA, which featured special articles on mythology and folklore and creative works from all over the country. 

Her career reached beyond the bounds of IUP. A graduate of the City College of New York and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Roffman taught in Tokyo, Japan, collaborated with Joseph Campbell on a myth program at Pendle Hill, studied at the Jung Institute in Zürich, and welcomed renowned scholars and writers to campus, including bringing Joe Bruchac, Bruno Bettelheim, and MC Richards to IUP as part of the myth programs. Her work as a poet, editor, translator, and interdisciplinary artist earned grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation and was invited to England to be a guest poet on the BBC broadcast “Writer from Abroad.” She is also the author of Going to Bed Whole, I Want to Thank My Eyes, and In the Fall of a Sparrow, among other works. 

Perhaps Roffman’s greatest legacy is the community she built in and beyond IUP. She facilitated and created workshops, lectures, publications, and an extraordinary collection of mythology resources. Alongside others, Roffman built up a library of mythology books. She donated 172 books to establish the Rosaly DeMaios Roffman Collection Center for Study of Myth and Folklore. She inspired generations of students and scholars to see myth as a living, evolving field of study, including Blane Dessy, who supported the idea of a myth center. Upon his retirement, Dessy helped found the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative, which was officially founded in 2021. Roffman has dedicated her long and illustrious career to the study of myth, and today the Myth Collaborative proudly continues the work she began more than half a century ago. 

Blane Dessy was an educator, librarian, advocate for the humanities, and co-founder of the Myth Collaborative. The Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative exists, in part, because of the dedication and generosity of Dessy, a 1973 IUP graduate, who donated $100,000 in 2019 to the IUP College of Humanities and Social Sciences Building Enhancement Fund. As a result, IUP’s Council of Trustees honored Dessy and IUP Professor Emerita of English Rosaly DeMaios Roffman with the naming of the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative, which officially opened in 2021.

Inspired by his mentor, Professor Roffman, Dessy dedicated his life to expanding access to knowledge and amplifying the voices of writers, artists, and scholars through his unwavering commitment to public service and lifelong learning. Forging a distinguished career in the field of library science, Dessy worked for libraries at the local, state, and federal levels. His career was wide-ranging, as he served as Director of Federal Enterprises with the Library of Congress, Director of Libraries for the Department of Justice, and Founding Director of the National Library of Education before retiring to Erie in 2018 and serving as the Director of the Erie County Public Library. 

Dessy always found ways to lift the voices of writers and artists through education and advocacy, even in retirement, commissioning an annual anthology of Erie poets and working to showcase Erie-based art and literature. Passionate about education, he also taught library science at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and later became the first employee and founding member of the Erie County Community College. Today, we honor Dessy’s memory and extraordinary generosity as we continue to promote his vision through the Myth Collaborative: a lasting home for the study of myth, literature, storytelling, and the humanities.