Current Student Bios

Emily Afanador combines studies in Folklore, Music, and Journalism to explore gender in rock music. Her forthcoming documentary follows local, co-ed bands to explore how gender dynamics are negotiated within bands via songwriting and decision-making, and how gender is coded and encoded though performance and audience reception.

Al Bersch is interested in vernacular photography, alternative documentary practices, and local industries. His work includes an ongoing collaborative documentary about logging and forestry in Southeastern British Columbia, and the foundation of Grotto Gallerie, a free-floating artist space. He received a BFA in photojournalism from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Jen Dare is an English Ph.D student with a specialty in Folklore. She is interested in the way in which mythological figurative or narrative symbols simultaneously operate within contemporary religious movements, American cinema, and popular folk/fairy tales.  She hopes her dissertation will be a way of demonstrating how certain mythological symbols retain their spiritual currency.  Her interests include stories of the strange, the fantastic, and the unusual—namely the all-American love of the outre in varying academic guises.

Beth Dehn is a second year grad student from Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree from Buena Vista University in English and Spanish. At the University of Oregon she combines classes in Anthropology, Folklore and Arts Administration and is pursuing a Museum Certificate. She is currently the Educational Outreach Intern at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, plugging away at a terminal project and rediscovering her love for Paul Bunyan. For further insight, please refer to Tale Motif E181.2.

Robert Dobler is a second year Master's student with a B.A. in English from Penn State. He has studied Spiritualism, Internet communication with the dead, Neo-Circus and Freak Show movements, bohemianism, antinomianism, graffiti, the religious comic tracts of Jack Chick, and roadside attractions.

Valerie Dowbenko graduated from Montana State with a B.A. in Liberal Studies and came to Oregon to experience rain, year-long greenery and folklore studies. She has an interest in second generations of new religious movements, funerary rites for the deceased (specifically the Tibetan Book of the Dead), and traditions and religious rituals involving pain and suffering.

Jennifer Furl received a B.A. and B.B.A. from the University of Texas. She is focusing her studies in Folklore, Anthropology, and Arts and Administration, and is interested in nonprofit arts organizations that use personal experience narratives in their work.

Nathan Georgitis is a Librarian at the University of Oregon. He earned a B.A. in Literature at Brown University, studying oral epic poetry, and a M.L.S. from Simmons College. Nathan’s interests include archives management and audio preservation; folklore and public media and personal experience narratives; and canoeing and boatbuilding traditions.

Ashley Gossman is combining Folklore, Anthropology, and Women's and Gender Studies to gain a perspective suited to the study of traditional healing in African and African-diasporic cultures. Her B.A. is in Cultural/Visual Anthropology from the University of Florida. Other interests include performance art and ethnographic film.

Liz Hancock graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in Political Science and a minor in English. Her interest in dead languages has led her to study Latin, Old English, and Old Norse. She combines this love of language with her interest in Greek and Latin authors, which has led her to study Classics as well. Ms. Hancock hopes you’ll join her in advocating the implementation of a Gaelic Studies program at U of O, or at least an Irish pub on campus.

Jesse LeRoy Mabus is a Master's student working with the Deptartments of Folklore, Anthropology and Religious Studies. He is currently on leave working with Clatsop Community College library in Astoria, OR and studying Spanish. His previous work has focused on calendrical events in Olympia, Washington, the WTO protests in Seattle, the current Anti-War protests, as well as the Neo-Pagan tradition of Reclaiming.

Cortney McIntyre received her Bachelor of Science in Secondary English Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her areas of focus in the Folklore Program include Anthropology and Women's and Gender Studies. She is working toward a Graduate Certificate in Women's and Gender Studies and has begun an apprenticeship as a midwife. Cortney's current research and interests focus upon birthing rituals, with special emphasis on the ways in which birthing centers and midwifery benefit women and society. Her thesis is a case study of a local, midwife-run birthing center, where she volunteers and assists with births.

Robb Norton is a Eugene native whose primary research interests include new media and digital culture. He has studied documentary filmmaking and cultural studies in England, as well as Japanese language and culture in Japan. He was one of the filmmakers of the award-winning feature film Pizza Girl produced right here in Eugene.

Joseph O'Connell is a first-year MA student with a background in English literature and music performance. Joseph's areas of study range from the history of British folk-song revivalism to the folklore of contemporary home recording collectives. Prospective projects include an examination of neo-primitivism in "underground" vogues for lo-fi, anti-folk, outsider, noise, and freak folk music. In folklore-relevant creative work, Joseph is currently mixing a set of original songs recorded in loose tribute to Noblesville, Indiana's "Bible Bird Man."

In her life away from the University, Deb Parker lives in the high desert of Central Oregon and teaches high school. She is interested in ethnobotany; specifically in cataloguing the plants described in medieval literature and ballads, examining and evaluating the efficacy of traditional uses of that plant life, and exploring the symbolism associated with certain plants. In her free time, she teaches ballet and loves to do a host of outdoor activities ranging from SCUBA diving to camping with the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Suzanne Reed was the Folk Arts Program Assistant at the Washington State Arts Commission for three years while attending The Evergreen State College. She has studied Orissi/Odissi dance politics in Orissa, worked on Cultural Heritage Driving Tours, a Folk Arts in K-12 education CD-ROM, a Senior Center members Oral History, and the preservation and organization of the WASAC Folk Arts twenty-five year archive collection. Suzanne has written arts grants and studied developmental television and arts for social change at Darpana Academy in Gujarat. She has an extensive fine arts background and plans to work with the Pacific Northwest weaving community of which she is a member while at the U of O.

Kate Ristau graduated from Illinois State University, majoring in English and minoring in Spanish. She is primarily interested in Celtic and Asian mythology and folk belief. Recent research topics include: ancient Celtic totemic belief, Jewish utopian beliefs of the 1880's, and ritual propriety in the works of Kongzi.  
 
Summer Pennell is a first year grad student, with a BA from the University of Washington in English and Visual Art. Her interests include gender and how it is portrayed in the performance arts, making sex education inclusive of all gender and sexual identities, and folklore as a form of empowerment. She is currently attempting to learn Indonesian gamelan and wayang kulit in the hopes of creating a pro-women wayang performance.

Neal Schlein received his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Colorado College in 2003.  His academic interests include the relationship of folklore theory to power, the political nature of folklore, the elite/folk divide, and performance-based theory.  His life-long love for dance and music has made him an active teacher of several folk dance traditions.  

Casey Schmitt earned a B.A. in English and Classical Humanities from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. His current work focuses upon motific elements of location and the life/death limen. In 2007 he served as UO Archivist, received the Alma Johnson Graduate Award, and was elected to the WSFS board.

Amy Shields works with the English and Arts Administration departments. She enjoys exploring theoretical connections between performance and place and has focused her research on the occupational culture of restaurant workers. Combining interests acquired as a server and an academic, she likes to drink whiskey and argue about "authenticity."

Don Stacy's studies emphasize folklore, journalism, and arts and administration. Don did interviews and scriptwriting for segments of "Making Pictures" (a documentary about photojournalism at the Eugene Register/Guard newspaper and its function in the community of Eugene) which aired on OPB in 2007. He is currently editing a documentary about mixed tapes/CDs as a folk process and material culture, as well as beginning work on a documentary about the Dutch tradition of "Surprise" (celebrated on St. Nicholas Day, December 6th) and its manifestations in the U.S.A. Don is also a musician, painter, photographer, filmmaker, poet, Autism Program Specialist, and a member of the University of Oregon Disabilities Studies Advisory Committee.

Gail Stevenson received her B.A. in English from the University of Oregon in 2004. She is a third-year Master's student focusing on contemporary American folklore with an emphasis on folk art and material culture. Her fieldwork and final project will center on self-taught artists who make art from recycled or found objects and also artists who create outdoor vernacular art environments. Her research will examine where these idiosyncratic arts stand within the dynamics of community and tradition. Arts and Administration and English are her other areas of focus.

Kevin Taylor is a third year Master's student.  He received his B.A. from the University of Oregon in Philosophy and Religious Studies.  His areas of focus within Folklore are Religious Studies and Arts and Administration.  Current research interests include new religious movements, apocalyptic eschatology, and prophetic tradition.

Kelley Totten is a second year Master's student with a B.A. in Journalism and French from Washington and Lee University. Her research focuses on souvenirs and representation, studying the intersection of material behavior, tourism, performance and visual communication theories. She hopes to conduct a collaborative research project in Fall 08 in the Mantaro Valley, located in the central highlands of Peru.

Geoff Vallee received a B.A. in English from Stetson University in DeLand, FL. His studies with the UO Folklore program include Folklore, Literature, and Religion. Geoff is exploring pilgrimage as an individual spiritual or folk-religious phenomenon. His emphasis is on individuals' motivations for travel into the out of doors, particularly U.S. designated wilderness areas. Geoff is also deeply involved with the Outdoor Pursuits Program at the UO, a program for outdoor leadership development.

Elaine Vradenburgh received her BA with an emphasis in Cultural and Community Studies from The Evergreen State College. Her interests include music in the African diaspora, visual ethics and representation, documentary video production and photography, theories of space and place, and public folklore. She is currently working on a documentary video about a local community that has formed around the study and performance of Zimbabwean musical traditions.

Ziying You graduated from Beijing University in 2005 with a MA major in Chinese Literature and a minor in Folklore. She was an editor of Forum on Folk Culture, the only national academic journal about folklore and folk culture in China. Her three areas at UO are folklore, Asian Studies and journalism. Folklore and film is her research focus and her current interest is in Chinese foodways in America.