Ohio State University's folklore graduate students are dedicated to furthering folklore research in their respective fields.
CFS folklore graduate students contribute significantly to the intellectual life of the Center and play leading roles in many of its social and academic activities, such as curriculum development, mentoring, organization of discussion groups and Colloquium presentations, public lectures, and conferences. They are engaged in a variety of scholarly research endeavors, including public programming, documentary, and academic media productions.
Current Members:
Zahra Abedinezhad-Mehrabadi: Areas of expertise: Women's Folklore, Religious Folklife, Folk Art (ways of dress), Iranian Traditions and Culture, Legal System of Iran, Reconciliation and Restorative Justice, Ethnography
Daisy Ahlstone: Daisy studies environmental storytelling. How? Through the lens of folklore, eco-criticism, posthumanism, and science & technology studies. Talk to them about legend, thylacines, extinction, material culture, metaphor, discourse analysis, digital communication, and more! They also collaborate on several folklore and community-centered projects, including the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (https://likenknowledge.org/), the Western States Folklore Society (http://www.westernfolklore.org/), and a Youtube and Twitch streaming channel called Folkwise, which brings the discipline of folklore to the next gen through digital platforms (https://www.twitch.tv/folkwise).
Emma Cobb: Former President and current treasurer of FSA.
Evan DeCarlo: Evan is a doctoral student in the Department of English. He specializes in the study of folklore. DeCarlo is particularly interested in western informal traditions of the supernatural, particularly as historical traditions manifest today in literature, entertainment, and, most significantly, the world of internet media. DeCarlo's interests extend to Tolkien Studies and Anglo-Saxon poetry, literature, and culture, as well as the literary traditions of the American West. DeCarlo is also an enthusiast of Arthuriana, especially its history of contemporary adaptation. He has spent much of his time in academia studying the works of T.H. White. From 2016-2019, DeCarlo was a faculty member in the Department of English at Southern Connecticut State University where he taught composition courses while earning his MA in English. DeCarlo is the published author of several short stories and a series of young adult novels.
Amelia Mathews-Pett: Amelia is a PhD student in the Department of English with specializations in Folklore and Popular Culture. After earning a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Utah, she earned her master’s degree at Utah State University, where she emphasized in Folklore and American Studies. During her time at USU, Amelia was an intern on The Digital Folklore Project headed by Dr. Jeannie Thomas and Dr. Lynne McNeill, and was a student participant in a field school hosted by Utah State University, The University of Wyoming, and the Library of Congress which conducted a study of dude ranching traditions in Grand Teton National Park. In 2018, she worked for the Utah State Folk Arts Program as an assistant artist coordinator for the Living Traditions folk arts festival. In 2019, she is serving as Student VP for the Western States Folklore Society. Her research interests in folklore are diverse, but she is currently focusing on folklore’s intersection with popular culture for her dissertation research.
Mariah Marsden: Mariah is a graduate student specializing in the study folklore and narratives—both oral and written. Her work on rural print culture explores the intersection of institutional and vernacular discourses, from contemporary farm books and cooperative magazines to nineteenth-century agricultural bulletins and ledgers. Through archival research and ethnographic interviews, she tackles such topics as rural electrification, courtship narratives, and the politics of arrowhead hunting. She also analyzes narratives of place, ranging from the rural region of the Missouri Ozarks to the imagined geography of tabletop gaming spaces.
Former Members:
Puja Batra-Wells
Cristina Benedetti
Sheila Bock
Chloe Brown
Clayton Buffer
Chris Burney
Jason Bush
Erin Cahill
Sara Cleto
Sarah Craycraft
Catherine Dean-Haidet
Sarah Dunlap
Ann Ferrell
Sandra Garner
Ben Gatling
Levi Gibbs
Kirsi Haenninen
John Harris
Anne Henochowicz
Rachel Hopkin
Katherine Parker Horigan
Frank LaRue
Wesley Merkes
Nicole Musgrave
Nicole Nieto
Yi Fan Pai
Rachel Paiscik
Cassie Patterson
Daria Safronova
Elo-Hanna Seljamaa
Joanna Spanos
Brittany Warman
Lauren Welker
Michael Wiatrowski
Meagan Winkelman
Nancy Yan
Ziying You