New Books in Folklore
Episodes
79* Madeline Miller on Circe (GT, JP)
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this rebroadcast, John and Brandeis neuroscientist Gina Turrigiano (an occasional host and perennial friend of Recall this Book) speak with Made...
78 Fantasy Then, Now, and Forever with Anna Vaninskaya
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth and John talk about fantasy's power of world-making with Edinburgh professor Anna Vaninskaya, author of William Morris and the Idea of Com...
Liora Sarfati, "Contemporary Korean Shamanism: From Ritual to Digital" (Indiana UP, 2021)
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Once viewed as an embarrassing superstition, the theatrical religious performances of Korean shamans--who communicate with the dead, divine the future...
Deirdre Ní Chonghaile, "Collecting Music in the Aran Islands: A Century of History and Practice" (U Wisconsin Press, 2021)
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Deirdre Ní Chonghaile is a writer, musician, broadcaster, and curator from the Aran Islands. Working bilingually in Irish and English, she is drawn t...
Ra Page, ed., "The Cuckoo Cage" (Comma Press, 2022)
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The superhero of comic books and blockbuster movies may be a quintessentially American invention, forever saving the world in skin-tight spandex. But ...
Linda LeGarde Grover, "Gichigami Hearts: Stories and Histories from Misaabekong" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stephanie Khattak speaks with Dr. Linda Legarde Grover, an award-winning author whose latest book interweaves family and Ojibwe history with stories f...
John Fenn and Lisa Gilman, "Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork" (Indiana UP, 2019)
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With The Handbook for Folklore and Ethnomusicology Fieldwork (Indiana University Press, 2019), Lisa Gilman and John Fenn offer a comprehensive rev...
Kevin J. Wetmore, "Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters" (Reaktion Books, 2021)
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Spanning myth, history, and contemporary culture, a terrifying and illuminating excavation of the meaning of cannibalism. Every culture has monsters t...
Nicholas Jubber, "The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales" (John Murray, 2022)
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales (John Murray, 2022), Nick Jubber unearths the lives of the dreamers who made ...
Ziying You, "Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning" (Indiana UP, 2020)
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning (Indiana UP, 2020), Ziying You explores the role ...
Mark Bender and Aku Wuwu, trans., "The Nuosu Book of Origins: A Creation Epic from Southwest China" (U Washington Press, 2019)
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Nuosu people, who were once overlords of vast tracts of farmland and forest in the uplands of southern Sichuan and neighboring provinces, are the ...
Takashi Saitō, "Ghastly Tales from the Yotsuya Kaidan" (Chisokudo, 2020)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ghastly Tales from the Yotsuya Kaidan (Chisokudo, 2020) is a newly revised and corrected translation of what is perhaps the most famous and oft told...
"Bambi" isn't about what you think it's about: Jack Zipes explains
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us think we know the story of Bambi—but do we? The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest (Princeton UP, 2022) is an all-new, i...
Annegret Oehme, "The Knight Without Boundaries: Yiddish and German Arthurian Wigalois Adaptations" (Brill, 2021)
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This volume explores a core medieval myth, the tale of an Arthurian knight called Wigalois, and the ways it connects the Yiddish-speaking Jews and the...
John B. Kachuba, "Shapeshifters: A History" (Reaktion Books, 2019)
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is something about a shapeshifter—a person who can transform into an animal—that captures our imagination; that causes us to want to howl at...
Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich, "Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch" (Stone Bridge, 2021)
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alluring, nurturing, dangerous, and vulnerable, the yamamba, or Japanese mountain witch, has intrigued audiences for centuries. What is it about the ...
Cyrus R. K. Patell, "Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker and beyond, this book offers the first complete assessment and philosophical exploration of the Star War...
M. E. J. Huff and Carole Ann King, "Alabama Quilts: Wilderness Through World War II, 1682-1950" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stephanie Khattak speaks with Carole Ann King, who, along with Mary Elizabeth “Sunshine” Johnson Huff, wrote Alabama Quilts: Wilderness Through W...
Wendy Doniger, "Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares: Horses in Indian Myth and History" (U Virginia Press, 2021)
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Raj Balkaran speaks with Wendy Doniger about her new book Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares: Horses in Indian Myth and History (University of Virgi...
M. W. Shores, "The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan: Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rakugo, a popular form of comic storytelling, has played a major role in Japanese culture and society. Developed during the Edo (1600–1868) and Meij...
Liang Luo, "The Global White Snake" (U Michigan Press, 2021)
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Liang Luo's book The Global White Snake (U Michigan Press, 2021) examines the Chinese White Snake legends and their extensive, multidirectional tra...
Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha, "Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments" (Oxford UP, 2021)
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha's book Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments (Oxford UP, 2021) examines d...
Tom Mould, "Overthrowing the Queen: Telling Stories of Welfare in America" (Indiana UP, 2020)
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It is a familiar story: A recipient of public assistance funds is caught buying expensive steaks, seafood, or other luxury foods with food stamps at t...
Sharon L. Coggan, "Sacred Disobedience: A Jungian Analysis of the Saga of Pan and the Devil" (Lexington Books, 2020)
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pan plays a central role in European mythology, originating as a figure who represented all that was impossible to tame in the world, something anyone...
Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel, "Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews" (North Atlantic Books, 2021)
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Until now, the herbal traditions of the Ashkenazi people have remained unexplored and shrouded in mystery. Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Her...
Jeanne Pitre Soileau, "Yo' Mama, Mary Mack, and Boudreaux and Thibodeaux: Louisiana Children's Folklore and Play" (UP of Mississippi, 2016)
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Children’s folklore is simultaneously a conservator of tradition and a site for creativity and innovation. For over five decades, Dr. Jeanne Pitre S...
Emily Ng, "A Time of Lost Gods: Mediumship, Madness, and the Ghost after Mao" (U California Press, 2020)
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If China’s Mao era is seen by many as a time of great upheaval and chaos, there are also people and places for whom things appear quite different. W...
Brian Collins on Indian Mythology
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What insights on the human experience can we find in ancient Indian mythology? Join us as we speak to Dr. Brian Collins (Associate Professor, Chair ...
Tae-Yeoun Keum, "Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought" (Harvard UP, 2020)
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought (Harvard UP, 2020) is an ambitious reinterpretation and defense of Plato’s basic enterprise and...
Chitgopekar Nilima, "The Reluctant Family Man: Shiva in Everyday Life" (Penguin, 2019)
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
He's the destroyer of evil, the pervasive one in whom all things lie. He is brilliant, terrifying, wild and beneficent. He is both an ascetic and a ho...
Martin Shaw, "Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass" (Chelsea Green, 2021)
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives—identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global pandemi...
Margaret Magat, "Balut: Fertilized Eggs and the Making of Culinary Capital in the Filipino Diaspora" (Bloomsbury, 2019)
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Balut is a fertilized chicken or duck egg that is boiled at the seventeenth day and sold as a common street snack in the Philippines. While it is wide...
Michael D. Nichols, "Religion and Myth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe" (McFarland, 2021)
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Breaking box office records, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has achieved an unparalleled level of success with fans across the world, raising the films...
Brenda Beck, "Land of the Golden River: The Medieval Tamil Folk Epic of Poṉṉivaḷa Nāḍu" (Friesen Press, 2021)
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast features Brenda Beck’s lifelong work on the Tamil folk epic Ponnivala. In addition to her forthcoming new English translation of the ep...
Sheila E. Jelen, "Salvage Poetics: Post-Holocaust American Jewish Folk Ethnographies" (Wayne State UP, 2020
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Salvage Poetics: Post-Holocaust American Jewish Folk Ethnographies (Wayne State University Press, 2020), Sheila Jelen explores how American Jewis...
Robert L. Stone, "Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus! Photographs from the Sacred Steel Community" (U of Mississippi Press, 2020)
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Folklorist Robert L. Stone presents a rare collection of high-quality documentary photos of the sacred steel guitar musical tradition and the commun...
Rachelle Hope Saltzman, "Pussy Hats, Politics, and Public Protest" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)
25 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, hundreds of cities in the U.S. and across the globe organized Women’s...
D. T. Lawrence and E. J. Lawless, "When They Blew the Levee: Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri" (UP of Mississippi, 2018)
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The town of Pinhook in Missouri was founded in the 1940s by southern Black farmers who were looking for land that they could purchase and own in the f...
Michael Slouber, "A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses: Tales of the Feminine Divine from India and Beyond" (U California Press, 2020)
13 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Slouber's new book A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses: Tales of the Feminine Divine from India and Beyond (University of California Press, 2020...
Rachel V. González, "Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities"
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A quinceañera is a traditional fifteenth birthday celebration for young women (though in contemporary times, it can also be for young men) in many La...
Jack Santino, "Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque" (UP Colorado, 2017)
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque (University Press of Colorado) offers a deep and wide-ranging exploration of relatio...
Adheesh Sathaye, “Crossing the Lines of Caste" (Oxford UP, 2015)
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be a Brahmin, and what could it mean to become one? The ancient Indian mythological figure Viśvāmitra accomplishes just this, t...
Kathryn Hume, "The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020)
05 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why do contemporary writers use myths from ancient Greece and Rome, Pharaonic Egypt, the Viking north, Africa's west coast, and Hebrew and Christian t...
Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for S...
Éva Guillorel, "Rhythms of Revolt: European Traditions and Memories of Social Conflict in Oral Culture" (Routledge, 2018)
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The culture of insurgents in early modern Europe was primarily an oral one; memories of social conflicts in the communities affected were passed on th...
Steve Zeitlin, "The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness" (Cornell UP, 2016)
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is a book of encounters. Part memoir, part essay, and partly a guide to maximizing your capacity for fulfillment and expression, The Poetry of Ev...
Kevin McGrath, "Vyāsa Redux: Narrative in Epic Mahābhārata" (Anthem Press, 2019)
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Vyāsa Redux: Narrative in Epic Mahābhārata (Anthem Press, 2019), Kevin McGrath examines the complex and enigmatic Vyāsa, both the primary creat...
Martin Shaw, "Courting the Wild Twin" (Chelsea Green, 2020)
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today I interview Martin Shaw. In Shaw’s new book, Courting the Wild Twin (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2020), he writes, “Here’s a secret I don’...
Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019)
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. B...
Adam H. Domby, "The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory" (U Virginia Press, 2020)
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Adam H. Domby, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Charleston, has written a rigorous analysis of American political memory as it c...
Magda Teter, "Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth" (Harvard UP, 2020)
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The myth of Jews killing Christian children emerged in 1144 CE, with the death of a boy named William in Norwich, England. Over the course of several ...
Matt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020)
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat....
Lijun Zhang and Ziying You, "Chinese Folklore Studies Today: Discourse and Practice" (Indiana UP, 2020)
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The discipline of folkloristics in the People’s Republic of China is robust and well-funded. With thousands of scholars across the country, it is su...
Phillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020)
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Philli...
Charlene Makley, "The Battle for Fortune: State-led Development, Personhood, and Power among Tibetans in China" (Cornell UP, 2018)
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rebgong, in the Northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau (China’s Qinghai Province), is in the midst of a ‘Battle for Fortune.’ That is, a battl...
K. Linder et al., "Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers" (Stylus Publishing, 2020)
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. How...
Eleanor Parker, "Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For all of their prominence in the popular imagination today, the historical record of the Viking presence in England is limited, with much of what we...
Alberto Cairo, "How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information" (Norton, 2019)
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if we don’t understand what we’re looking at? Social media has made charts, i...
Kathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trad...
J. Neuhaus, "Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers" (West Virginia UP, 2019)
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The things that make people academics -- as deep fascination with some arcane subject, often bordering on obsession, and a comfort with the solitude t...
Oren Harman, "Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World" (FSG, 2018)
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“There are only two ways to live your life,” said Albert Einstein, “One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is ...
Tim Frandy, "Inari Sami Folklore: Stories from Aanaar" (U Wisconsin Press, 2019)
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019) is rich multivoiced anthology of folktales, legends, joik songs, prove...
S. Ingram, W. G. Mullins, and T. Richardson, "Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies" (UP of Mississippi, 2019)
30 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies (University Press of Mississippi, 2019) authors Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins, and Todd Richardson...
M. D. Foster and J. A. Tolbert, "The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World" (Utah State UP, 2015)
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This volume introduces a new concept to explore the dynamic relationship between folklore and popular culture: the "folkloresque." With "folkloresque,...
Emily Wilcox, "Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy" (U California Press, 2018)
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What is “Chinese dance,” how did it take shape in during China’s socialist period, and how has this socialist form continued to influence Post-M...
Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan, "Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection" (Indiana UP, 2018)
07 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Music has always been integral to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, with songs such as Kendrick Lamar’s "Alright," J. Cole’s "...
Susan Lepselter, "The Resonance of Unseen Things: Poetics, Power, and UFOs in the American Uncanny" (U Michigan Press, 2016)
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When we talk about stories of alien abduction in the United States, we often do so through a framework of belief vs. disbelief. Do I think this story ...
Anand Prahlad, "The Secret Life of a Black Aspie: A Memoir" (U Alaska Press, 2017)
17 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anand Prahlad was born on a former plantation in Virginia in 1954. This memoir, vividly internal, powerfully lyric, and brilliantly impressionistic, i...
Discussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Open Access Publishing
19 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more de...
Alexander Langlands, "Cræft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts" (Norton, 2017)
04 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander Langlands is a British archaeologist, historian, writer, and broadcaster. His most recent book, Cræft: An Inquiry into the Origins and Tr...
David J. Puglia, "Tradition, Urban Identity, and the Baltimore 'Hon': The Folk in the City" (Lexington Books, 2018)
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Folklorist David J. Puglia is an assistant professor at the City University of New York and in his latest book - Tradition, Urban Identity, and the Ba...
Ben Gatling, "Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan" (U Wisconsin Press, 2018)
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
George Mason University professor Ben Gatling’s debut book, Expressions of Sufi Culture in Tajikistan (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018), is a be...
Patrick B. Mullen, "Right to the Juke Joint: A Personal History of American Music" (U Illinois Press, 2018)
14 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On its back cover, Patrick B. Mullen’s Right to the Juke Joint: A Personal History of American Music(University of Illinois Press, 2018) is aptly de...
McKenzie Wark, "General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century" (Verso, 2017)
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
McKenzie Wark’s new book offers 21 focused studies of thinkers working in a wide range of fields who are worth your attention. The chapters of Gener...
Lee Bidgood, “Czech Bluegrass: Notes from the Heart of Europe” (U Illinois Press, 2017)
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Although bluegrass music is typically associated with the bluegrass state of Kentucky and Appalachia, the genre is actually played in many pockets all...
Kate Parker Horigan, “Consuming Katrina: Public Disaster and Personal Narrative” (UP of Mississippi, 2018)
09 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Parker Horigan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at Western Kentucky University, and a co-editor of th...
Bill Ivey, “Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Folklorizing America” (Indiana UP, 2018)
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Ivey’s Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Folklorizing America (Indiana University Press, 2018) advances the idea that we are entering a post-enl...
Marsha MacDowell, Clare Luz, and Beth Donaldson, “Quilts and Health” (Indiana UP, 2017)
25 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Quilts and Health (Indiana University Press, 2017), Marsha MacDowell and her colleagues examine the phenomenon of health-related quilts, of which t...
Robert D. Miller II, “The Dragon, the Mountain, and the Nations: An Old Testament Myth, Its Origins, and Its Afterlives” (Eisenbrauns, 2018)
21 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
People have long been captivated by stories of dragons. Myths related to dragon slaying can be found across many civilizations around the world, even ...
Ann K. Ferrell, “Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century” (U Press of Kentucky, 2013)
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ann K. Ferrell is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Folk Studies program at Western Kentucky University, and also Editor-in-Chief of the ...
Christina Maags and Marina Svensson, “Chinese Heritage in the Making: Experiences, Negotiations, and Contestations” (Amsterdam UP, 2018)
25 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Chinese Heritage in the Making: Experiences, Negotiations, and Contestations (Amsterdam University Press, 2018), edited by Christina Maags and Mari...
Erik Mueggler, “Songs for Dead Parents: Corpse, Text, and World in Southwest China” (U Chicago Press, 2017)
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Lòlop’ò of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province have a folktale in which they, Han Chinese, and Tibetans were given the technology of writing. ...
Joseph Sciorra, “Built with Faith: Italian American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in NYC” (U Tennessee Press, 2018)
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Folklore scholar Joseph Sciorra is the Director for Academic and Cultural Programs at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in Queens Colleg...
Ruth von Bernuth, “How the Wise Men Got to Chelm: The Life and Times of a Yiddish Folk Tradition” (NYU Press, 2017)
02 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In How the Wise Men Got to Chelm: The Life and Times of a Yiddish Folk Tradition (New York University Press, 2017), Ruth von Bernuth, Associate Profes...
Jo Farb Hernandez, “Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments” (Raw Vision, 2013)
28 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments (Raw Vision, 2013) is an audacious tome. A comprehensive survey o...
Dorothy Noyes, “Humble Theory: Folklore’s Grasp on Social Life” (Indiana UP, 2016)
22 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Humble Theory: Folklore’s Grasp on Social Life (Indiana University Press, 2016) is an anthology of essays from Dorothy Noyes, professor of English a...
Jean R. Freedman, “Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics” (U Illinois Press, 2017)
08 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When folklorist Jean Freedman first met Peggy Seeger in 1979, Freedman was an undergraduate on her junior year abroad in London, while her American co...
C. Grant and H. Schippers, “Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective” (Oxford UP, 2016)
19 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2016), a multi-authored volume co-edited by Catherine Gran...
Claire Schmidt, “If You Don’t Laugh, You’ll Cry: The Occupational Humor of White Wisconsin Prison Workers” (U Wisconsin Press, 2017)
08 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Schmidt is not a prison worker, rather she is a folklorist and an Assistant Professor at Missouri Valley College. However, many members of her ...
Ray Cashman, “Packy Jim: Folklore and Worldview on the Irish Border” (U Wisconsin Press, 2016)
17 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How do individuals on national or societal peripheries make use of tradition and to what ends? How can narratives discursively construct a complex wor...
Franz Rickaby, et al., “Pinery Boys: Songs and Songcatching in the Lumberjack Era” (U Wisconsin Press, 2017)
10 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Gretchen Dykstra‘s career to date has been both impressive and wide-ranging. She was the founding President of the Times Square Alliance, the former...
David Hopkin, “Voices of the People in Nineteenth-Century France” (Cambridge UP, 2017)
25 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The author of this book, David Hopkin, is Professor of European Social History at Hertford College, Oxford. He is also my brother. However, I’m not ...
Jason Josephson-Storm, “The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences” (U. Chicago, 2017)
21 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We tend to think of ourselves—our modern selves–as disenchanted. We have traded magic, myth, and spirits for science, reason, and logic. But this ...
Luisa Del Giudice, ed. “On Second Thought: Learned Women Reflect on Profession, Community, and Purpose” (U. Utah Press, 2017)
08 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On Second Thought: Learned Women Reflect on Profession, Community, and Purpose (University of Utah Press, 2017) is a collection of thirteen essays by ...
Ian Brodie, “A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-Up Comedy” (UP of Mississippi, 2014).
20 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-Up Comedy (The University Press of Mississippi, 2014), Ian Brodie, an associate professor of folklore at Cape...
Michael Youngblood, “Cultivating Community: Interest, Identity, and Ambiguity in an Indian Social Mobilization” (South Asian Studies Press, 2016)
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Cultivating Community: Interest, Identity, and Ambiguity in an Indian Social Mobilization by Michael Youngblood, a cultural anthropologist based in Sa...
Yuval Harari, “Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah” (Wayne State UP, 2017)
27 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jewish Magic Before the Rise of Kabbalah (Wayne State University Press, 2017) opens new vistas not only on the history of the practice of magic throug...
Laura J. Olson and Svetlana Adonyeva, “The Worlds of Russian Village Women: Tradition, Transgression, Compromise” (U. Wisconsin Press, 2013)
09 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Worlds of Russian Village Women: Tradition, Transgression, Compromise (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013) by Laura J. Olson and Svetlana Adonyev...
Peter Gottschalk, “Religion, Science, and Empire: Classifying Hinduism and Islam in British India” (Oxford UP, 2012)
13 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When did religion begin in South Asia? Many would argue that it was not until the colonial encounter that South Asians began to understand themselves ...
Rebecca Williams, “Muhammad and the Supernatural: Medieval Arab Views” (Routledge, 2013)
03 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca Williams‘ book Muhammad and the Supernatural: Medieval Arab Views (Routledge, 2013) is one of the newest additions to the Routledge Studies ...