Well into my fourth year of retirement, a blissful state of being, I am keeping active with projects to my liking, and at a pace to my liking (for the most part). I persist as editor of the Journal of Folklore Research Reviews (JFRR), working with colleagues William Hansen, Henry Glassie, and Brandon Barker, with able assistance from Caroline Tatum to stay abreast of publications of interest to folklorists and ethnomusicologists. These reviews can be accessed here:
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jfrr

As well, I continue as a core member of the Diverse Environmentalisms Research Team (DERT), a group of scholars, community workers, and activists, tracking the consequential role of expressive culture in settings of debate, conflict, and trauma related to environmental degradation and ecological collapse.

Recent publications

“Revisiting Ostension in Folkloristics,” Semiotic Review 11 (April 2024)
https://semioticreview.com/ojs/index.php/sr/article/view/82

“On the Street with Austin’s Chicano Kids,” Children’s Folklore Review  42 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.14434/cfr.2024.vol42.39022

Review of Patricia Martínez, Hermán A. Martínez, and the Hilos Culturales Board of Directors, with an introduction by Enrique R. Lamadrid. Hilos Culturales: Cultural Threads of the San Luis Valley. Denver: History Colorado, 2023. Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, posted April 16, 2024.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jfrr/article/view/37914/40339

Review of Suzanne Oakdale, Amazonian Cosmopolitans: Navigating a Shamanic Cosmos, Shifting Indigenous Policies, and Other Modern Projects. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, posted February 16, 2023. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jfrr/article/view/35874/38916

Retirement Party

In May of 2022, the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology threw a grand retirement party for five of us stalwarts, me, Diane Goldstein, Daniel Reed, Greg Schrempp, and Sue Tuohy. I was fortunate to have on hand a fine representation of the immediate family, seen in all our glory here:

Performing Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture and Ecological Change (Urbana: University of Illinois Press), which I edited with Katey Borland, Rebecca Dirksen, and Sue Tuohy; it contains my chapter, “Ecoperformativity: Expressive Culture as Spiritual, Pedagogical, and Activist Resource.”

Performing Environmentalisms

Children’s Folklore Section, American Folklore Society: Lifetime Achievement Award

UC Berkeley Folklore Podcast: Interview with Visiting Professor John McDowell

folklore.berkeley.edu/podcast(episode 4)

Taita Imbabura: Reverence and Mirth in Mountain Worship.

Folklor Edebiyat (Folklore & Literature): Prof. Dr. Ihan Basgoz 100th Special Issue, pages 759-769: folkloredebiyat.org

“Transitionality: The Border as Barrier and Bridge.” In Border Folk Balladeers: Critical Studies on Américo Paredes, edited by Roberto Cantú. Cambridge Press, pages 86-101.

“Folklore and Sociolinguistics.” Humanities 7, 9: 1-12. http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/7/1/9/pdf

“Collage of Colors: Processing Place through Fantasy Play.” Children’s Folklore Review 39 (2018): 62-91.

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/cfr/article/view/25376/31238

*****

See the George List collection of traditional Afro-Colombian tales introduced and edited by John with Juan Sebastien Rojas

Animal Tales from the Caribbean