Biography
Dr. Bronner, distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore Emeritus, received his Ph.D. in Folklore and American Studies from Indiana University in 1981. He has been editor of the journals Material Culture and Folklore Historian and the book series Material Worlds for the University Press of Kentucky, Pennsylvania German History and Culture for Penn State Press, and Jewish Cultural Studies for Littman.
He is the author of many books, including Folklore: The Basics; Campus Traditions: Folklore from the Old- Time College to the Modern Mega-University; Explaining Traditions: Folk Behavior in Modern Culture; Killing Tradition: Inside Hunting and Animal Rights Controversies; Folk Nation: Folklore in the Creation of American Tradition; Following Tradition: Folklore in the Discourse of American Culture; Grasping Things: Folk Material Culture and Mass Society; Chain Carvers: Old Men Crafting Meaning; American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History; American Children's Folklore (winner of the Opie Prize for best book on children's folklore); Old-Time Music Makers of New York State (winner of the John Ben Snow Prize for best book on upstate New York), and Popularizing Pennsylvania: Henry W. Shoemaker and the Progressive Uses of Folklore and History. He has edited numerous books, including a four-volume encyclopedia of American folklife, two-volume encyclopedia of American youth cultures, encyclopedia of Pennsylvania German history and culture, a cultural history of consumer society, folklife studies from the Gilded Age, the writing of Lafcadio Hearn, the essays of Alan Dundes, and volumes on American folklore and nationalism, creativity and tradition, and folk art and material culture. He has been invited all over the world to speak on his research, and won Penn State Harrisburg's awards for research, teaching, and service. In addition, he has received the Jordan Award for teaching from Penn State (1985), the Kenneth Goldstein Lifetime Achievement Award for Academic Leadership from the American Folklore Society (2015), and the Mary Turpie Prize from the American Studies Association for teaching, advising, and program development (1999). Dr. Bronner served as visiting distinguished professor of American Studies at the University of California at Davis in 1991, Fulbright Professor of American Studies at Osaka University in Japan during the 1996-1997 academic year, and Walt Whitman Distinguished Chair at Leiden University in the Netherlands in 2006. In 1997-1998 he served as Visiting Professor of Folklore and American Civilization at Harvard University. He currently serves as Dean of the College of General Studies and Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. His teaching and research interests are in folk and popular culture; material and visual culture; gender, sports, and masculinity studies; ethnic and religious studies; and American Studies theory and method.
Publications
(ed.) Jews at Home: The Domestication of Identity. Oxford, UK, and Portland, Oregon: Littman, 2010.
Greater Harrisburg's Jewish Community (Images of America Series). Charleston: Arcadia, 2010.
Killing Tradition: Inside Hunting and Animal Rights Controversies. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008.
Steelton.Charleston: Arcadia, 2008 (with Michael Barton).
(ed.)Jewishness: Expression, Identity, and Representation. Oxford, UK, and Portland, OR: Littman, 2008.
(ed.)The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytical Essays of Alan Dundes. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2007.
(ed.)Encyclopedia of American Folklife. 4 vols. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2006.
Crossing the Line: Violence, Play, and Drama in Naval Equator Traditions. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.
(ed.)Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Folk Nation: Folklore in the Creation of American Tradition. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.
(ed.) Lafcadio Hearn's America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
(ed.) The Meanings of Tradition. Los Angeles: California Folklore Society, 2000.
Following Tradition: Folklore in the Discourse of American Culture. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1998.
Popularizing Pennsylvania: Henry W. Shoemaker and the Progressive Uses of Folklore and History. University Park: Penn State Press, 1996.
Ethnic Ancestry in Pennsylvania: An Analysis of Self-Identification. Middletown: Pennsylvania State Data Center, 1996.
The Carver's Art: Crafting Meaning from Wood. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
Piled Higher and Deeper: The Folklore of Student Life. Little Rock: August House Publishers, 1995.
(ed.) Creativity and Tradition in Folklore: New Directions. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992.
(ed.) American Material Culture and Folklife. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992.
(ed.) Folk Art and Art Worlds. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992 (with John Michael Vlach).
Piled Higher and Deeper: The Folklore of Campus Life. Little Rock: August House Publishers, 1990.
American Children's Folklore. Little Rock, August House Publishers, 1988. Annotated Edition, 1989.
(ed.) Consuming Visions: Accumulation and Display of Goods in America, 1880-1920. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.
(ed.) Folklife Studies from the Gilded Age: Object, Rite, and Custom in Victorian America. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988.
Old-Time Music Makers of New York State. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987.
Grasping Things: Folk Material Culture and Mass Society in America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
(ed.) Folk Art and Art Worlds. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986 (with John Michael Vlach).
American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.
Chain Carvers: Old Men Crafting Meaning. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985.
(ed.) American Material Culture and Folklife: A Prologue and Dialogue. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985.
(ed.) American Folk Art: A Guide to Sources. New York: Garland Publishing, 1984.
"'This is Why We Hunt': Social-Psychological Meanings of the Traditions and Rituals of Deer Camp." In Wild Games: Hunting and Fishing Traditions in North America, ed. Dennis Cutchins and Eric A. Eliason, 65-104. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2010.
"De Economie van Volkscultuur" [The Economics of Folk Culture]. In Splitsen of knopen? Over Volkscultuur in Nederland [Splitting of Knots: On Folk Culture in the Netherlands], ed. Hester Dibbits, Richard Hermans, Jan Jaap Knol, Gitta Luiten, Taco de Neef, and Ineke Strouken, 130-38. Antwerp: Thonik. [in Dutch]
"Digitizing and Virtualizing Folklore." In Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World, ed. Trevor Blank, 21-66. Logan: Utah State Press, 2009.
"The Chutzpah of Jewish Cultural Studies." In Jewishness: Expression, Identity, and Representation, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 1-26. Oxford: Littman, 2008.
"The Analytics of Alan Dundes." In The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytic Essays of Alan Dundes, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 1-50. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2007.
"'Heile, Heile, Hinkel Dreck': On the Earthiness of Pennsylvania German Folk Narratives." In Preserving Heritage: A Festschrift for C. Richard Beam, ed. Joshua R. Brown and Leroy T. Hopkins, Jr., 77-100. Lawrence, Kansas: Society for German-American Studies, 2006.
"Building Tradition: Control and Authority in Vernacular Architecture." In Vernacular Architecture in the 21st Century, ed. Marcel Vellinga and Lindsay Asquith, 23-45. London and New York: Taylor and Francis, 2005.
"Plain Folk and Folk Society: John Hostetler's Legacy of the Little Community." In Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John Hostetler, ed. David Weaver-Zercher, 55-94. University Park: Penn State Press, 2005.
"Introduction," "Menfolk," and "Hidden Erections and Sexual Fabrications: Old Men Crafting Manliness." In Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 1-60, 274-314. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
"'Letting Out Jack: Sex and Aggression in Adolescent Male Recitations." In Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities, ed. Simon J. Bronner, 315-50. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005 (with Ronald L. Baker).
"Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters: A Hillbilly Band in the Northern Tradition." In Exploring Roots Music , ed. Nolan Porterfield, 127-34. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
"Folklore and Folklife." In Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, ed. William Pencak and Randall Miller, pp. 454-76. University Park: Penn State Press, 2002.
"Amerika no Folklore to Folklife: Amerika No Kodomo Tachi No Seikatsu Bunka" [Folklore and Folklife of America: Everyday Life and Culture of American Children]. In Dramatic America, ed. Hisashi Ishida, pp. 175-91. Tokyo: Eihosya, 2002. [translated by Youji Sawari into Japanese]
"Legendary Explanations: The Protection of the Remu Cemetery during the Holocaust." Markers XIX, ed. Richard E. Meyer, pp. 50-63. Greenfield, Massachusetts: Association for Gravestone Studies, 2002.
"Amerika Ni Okeru Amerika-Kenkyu To Sono Kyoiku-Hoho" [American Studies Pedagogy in the United States]. In Amerika Shin-Kenkyu [American Studies: A New Perspective], ed. Keijiro Unoki, pp. 330-39. Tokyo: Hokuju-Shuppan, 1997. [In Japanese]
"Material Folk Culture of Children." In Children's Folklore: A Source Book, ed. Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia McMahon, pp. 251-72. New York: Garland, 1995. Reprinted, Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999.
"'Your Mother's Like...': Formula in Contemporary American Ritual Insults." In Opus Maledictorum: A Book of Bad Words, ed. Reinhold Aman, 166-77. New York: Marlowe, 1996.
"From Nature to Culture and Object to Image: Challenges for the Preservation of the Past for the Future." In Conserving Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century, ed. Marilyn Kisly, pp. 15-22. Ann Arbor: Historical Society of Michigan, 1994.
"Introduction" and "Elaborating Tradition: A Pennsylvania-German Folk Artist Ministers to His Community." In Creativity and Tradition in Folklore: New Directions, ed. Simon J. Bronner, pp. 1-40, 277-326. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992.
"Cane Making as Symbol and Tradition." In American Folk Art Canes: Personal Sculpture, ed. George H. Meyer. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Sandringham Press, 1992, pp. 219-21."Introduction" and "Reading Consumer Culture." In Consuming Visions: Accumulation and Display of Goods in America, 1880-1920, ed. Simon J. Bronner, pp. 1-53. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989. "Object Lessons: The Work of Ethnological Museums and Collections." In Consuming Visions: Accumul
"Folklife Starts Here: The Background of Material Culture Scholarship in Pennsylvania." In The Old Traditional Way of Life: Essays in Honor of Warren E. Roberts, ed. Robert E. Walls & George H. Schoemaker, pp. 230-43. Bloomington, Indiana: Trickster Press, 1989.
"Background of the Blues: Afro-American Folklore." In The Blues: A Bibliographic Guide, ed. Mary L. Hart, Brenda M. Eagles, Lisa N. Howorth, pp. 11-30. New York: Garland, 1989.
"Folk Objects." In Folk Groups and Folklore Genres, ed. Elliott Oring, pp. 99-124. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1986.
"The House on Penn Street: Conflict and Creativity in Folk Art" and "Introduction." In Folk Art and Art Worlds, ed. John Michael Vlach and Simon J. Bronner, pp. 123-49, 1-10. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986.
"'Visible Proofs': Material Culture Study in American Folkloristics." In Material Culture: A Research Guide, ed. Thomas Schlereth, pp. 127-53. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1985.
"The Idea of the Folk Artifact" and "Researching Material Folk Culture in the Modern American City." In American Material Culture and Folklife, pp. 3-39, 221-37. "Idea of the Folk Artifact" reprinted in Academic and Public History: A Synthesis, ed. Phyllis Leffler. Melbourne, Florida: Krieger Publishing, 1989.
"Toward a Philosophy of Folk Objects." In Personal Places: Perspectives on Informal Art Environments, ed. Daniel Franklin Ward, pp. 171-77. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1984.
"Folklore in the Bureaucracy." In Tools for Management, ed. Frederick Richmond and Kathy Nazar, pp. 45-57. Harrisburg: PEN Publications, 1984.
"'Let Me Tell It My Way': Joketelling by a Father and Son." In Humor and the Individual, ed. Elliott Oring, pp. 18-36. Los Angeles: California Folklore Society, 1984.
"The Paradox of Pride and Loathing, and Other Problems." In Foodways and Eating Habits: Directions for Research, ed. Michael Owen Jones, Roberta Krell, Bruce Guiliano, pp. 115-24. Los Angeles: California Folklore Society, 1983.
"The Problem and Promise of Tradition." Levend Erfgoed: Vakblad voor public folklore & public history 6, no. 1 (2009): 4-11.
"Fathers and Sons: Rethinking the Bar Mitzvah as an American Rite of Passage." Children's Folklore Review 31 (2008-2009): 7-34.
"Hare Coursing and the Ethics of Tradition." Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 46 (2008): 7-38.
"Analyzing the Ethnic Self: The Hinkeldreck Theme in Pennsylvania-German Folk Narrative." Columbia Journal of American Studies, 8, no. 1 (2007): 19-53.
"Folk Logic: Interpretation and Explanation in Folkloristics." Western Folklore 65, no. 4 (Fall 2006): 401-34.
"The Year of Folklore, and Other Dutch Lessons in Public Heritage." Volkskunde 107, no. 4 (2006): 343-60 [Dutch summary on pp. 379-81].
"Folklore and the Quest for Meaning." Levend Erfgoed: Vakblad Voor Public Folklore and Public History 3, no. 2 (2006): 4-8. [English with Dutch Summary]
"Contesting Tradition: The Deep Play and Protest of Pigeon Shoots." Journal of American Folklore 118, no. 470 (Fall 2005): 409-52.
"'Gombo' Folkloristics: Lafcadio Hearn's Creolization and Hybridization in the Formative Period of Folklore Studies." Journal of Folklore Research 42, no. 2 (May-December 2005): 141-84.
"Narrating and Racializing Urban Black Folklife in Nineteenth-Century America: Lafcadio Hearn's Cincinnati Stories." Folklore Historian 21 (2004): 35-71.
"'This is Why We Hunt': Social-Psychological Meanings of the Traditions and Rituals of Deer Camp." Western Folklore 63 (2004): 11-50.
"Whither Pennsylvania-German Studies?" Der Reggeboge: Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society 38, no. 1 (2004): 3-8.
"The Lieberman Syndrome: Jewishness in American Political Culture." Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 2, no. 1 (2003): 35-58.
"Ideas for Inquiry: 'Exhibiting Children.'" Children's Folklore Review 25, nos. 1-2 (2002-2003): 101-4.
"Questioning the Future: Polling Americans at the Turn of the New Millennium." Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies 27 (2002): 665-86.
"Folklore Responds to Columbine and Adolescence." Children's Folklore Review 24, nos. 1-2 (2002): 7-20.
"From Landsmanshaften to Vinkln: Mediating Community Among Yiddish Speakers in America." Jewish History 15, no. 2 (2001): 131-48.
"The American Concept of Tradition: Folklore in the Discourse of Traditional Values." Western Folklore 59, no. 2 (Winter 2000): 87-104.
"The Meanings of Tradition: An Introduction." Western Folklore 59 , no. 2 (Winter 2000): 87-104.
"Inventing and Invoking Tradition in Holocaust Memorials." Newfolk: New Directions in Folklore 4, no. 2 (October 2000).
"Cultural Historical Studies of Jews in Pennsylvania: A Review and Preview." Pennsylvania History 66, no. 3 (Summer 1999): 311-38."Eulogy for Pennsylvania Folklife (1957-1997)." Journal of the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies 6, no. 1 (Winter 1999): 4-7.
"History and Organization of Children's Folklore in the American Folklore Society" Children's Folklore Review, 20, nos.1-2 (1997-1998): 57-65.
"Consumer Culture and Ethnicity in the Literature of Realism during America's Gilded Age." Kansai American Literature 34 (1997): 59-71.
"'Me'yin Kesem Afaf Ota': Retorika Shel Folklor V'historia Bezichronotav Shel Ya'akov Zeifter Me'ushpitzin." ["There Was Something Magical About It": The Rhetoric of Folklore and History in the Narratives of Jacob Seifter.] Chulyot: Journal of Yiddish Research 4 (Summer 1997): 233-49. [in Hebrew with English summary]
"Inspiriting the Land: Henry Shoemaker and Local Legend in Central Pennsylvania." Snyder County Historical Society Bulletin 1996, pp. 81-99.
"Craft in American Consciousness." Meisei Review 12 (1997): 3-26.
"Amerikajin-no Ishiki-ni-okeru Kurafuto" [Craft in American Consciousness] Gakujyutsu Kenkyu Kiyou 17 (March 1997): 127-37. [in Japanese]
"'Novel Impressions': Literature and Consumer Culture during America's Gilded Age." Borderlines: Studies in American Culture 3, no. 2 (1996): 123-43 .
"Shoemaker vs. Shoemaker: The Debate on Pennsylvania Germans in American Tradition." Der Reggeboge: Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society 30, nos. 1-2 (1996): 3-30.
"Epes Tsoyberhaftes: The Rhetoric of Folklore and History in Jacob Seifter's Memoirs of Auschwitz." Yiddish 10, nos. 2-3 (1996): 17-33.
"Theorizing and the Mission of Folklore Studies." Folklore Historian 13 (1996): 25-29.
"The Peculiar History of Public Folklore: Searching for America's First State Folklorist." Folklore Historian 12 (1995): 14-28.
"Exploring American Traditions: A Survey of Folklore and Folklife Research in American Studies," American Studies International 31, no. 2 (October 1993): 4-36.
"Folk Art on Display: America's Conflict of Traditions," American Quarterly 45, no. 1 (March 1993): 128-50.
"Expressing and Creating Ourselves in Childhood: A Commentary." Children's Folklore Review 15, no. 1 (Fall 1992): 47-59.
"Martha Warren Beckwith, America's First Chair of Folklore." Folklore Historian 9 (1992): 5-53.
"James Maidment, Ballad Editor." Midwestern Folklore 18, no. 2 (Fall 1992): 64-68.
"A Prophetic Vision of Public and Academic Folklife: Alfred Shoemaker and America's FirstDepartment of Folklore." Folklore Historian 8 (1991): 38-55.
"The Fragmentation of American Folklife Studies." Journal of American Folklore 103, no. 408 (April-June 1990): 209-14.
"Anglo-American Connections in Folklore and Folklife." Folklore 101, no. 1 (1990): 47-57.
"'Left to Their Own Devices': Interpreting American Children's Folklore as an Adaptation to Aging." Southern Folklore 47, no. 2 (1990): 101-15.
"'Toward a Common Center': Pragmatism and Folklore Studies." Folklore Historian 7 (1990): 23-30.
"Children's Folklore as an Adaptation to Aging." Talking Folklore, no. 7 (August 1989): 21-38.
"The Use of Folklore in the Shaping of American Ideology, 1880-1900." International Folklore Review 6 (1988): 21-25.
"The Anglo-American Fiddle Tradition in New York State." New York Folklore 14, nos. 3-4 (1988): 23-35.
"Talking Fieldwork." Talking Folklore, no. 5 (November 1988): 5-15.
"Political Suicide: The Budd Dwyer Joke Cycle and the Humor of Disaster." Midwestern Folklore 14, no. 2 (Fall 1988): 81-90.
"Art, Performance, and Praxis: The Rhetoric of Contemporary Folklore Studies." Western Folklore 47, no. 2 (April 1988): 75-101.
"Organizing Knowledge: Four Trends in American Folklore Historiography." Folklore Historian 3, no. 2 (Fall 1986): 26-31.
"Material Culture and Region: Lessons from Folk Studies." Kentucky Folklore Record 32, nos. 1-2 (January-June 1986): 1-16.
"Folklore and the Behavioral Sciences." Anthropos: International Review of Ethnology and Linguistics 79, nos. 1-3 (1984): 251-55.
"The Early Movements of Anthropology and Their Folkloristic Relationships." Folklore 95, no. 1 (1984): 57-73.
"The Processual Principle in Folk Art, Based on a Study of Wooden Chain Carving." Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 22 (1983-1984): 55-67.
"'What's Grosser Than Gross?': New Sick Joke Cycles." Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore 11, no. 1 (1985): 39-49.
"'Visible Proofs': Material Culture Study in American Folkloristics." American Quarterly 35, no. 3 (1983): 316-38.
"'Learning of the People': Folkloristics in the Study of Behavior and Thought." New York Folklore 9, nos. 3-4 (Winter 1983): 75-88.
"Links to Behavior: An Analysis of Chain Carving." Kentucky Folklore Record 29, nos. 3-4 (July-December 1983): 72-82.
"Suburban Houses and Manner Books: The Structure of Tradition and Aesthetics." Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture 18, no. 1 (Spring 1983): 61-68.
"The Haptic Experience of Culture." Anthropos: International Review of Ethnology and Linguistics 77, nos. 3-4 (1982): 351-62.
"...Feeling's the Truth." Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 48, no. 4 (Winter 1982): 117-24.
"'Your Mother's Like...': Formula in Contemporary American Ritual Insults." Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression 6, nos. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 1982): 199-210.
"The Hidden Past of Material Culture Studies in American Folkloristics." New York Folklore 8, nos. 1-2 (Summer 1982): 1-10.
"Structural and Stylistic Relations of Oral and Literary Humor: An Analysis of Leo Rosten's H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N Stories." Journal of the Folklore Institute 19, no. 1 (January-April 1982): 31-45.
"Historical Methodology in Folkloristics: Introduction." Western Folklore 41, no. 1(January-April 1982): 28-29.
"Malaise or Revelation? Observations on the 'American Folklore' Polemic." Western Folklore 41, no. 1 (January 1982): 52-61.
"Modern Anthropological Trends and their Folkloristic Relationships." Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 19 (1981): 66-83.
"Saturday Night in Greenville: An Interracial Tale-and-Music Session in Context." Folklore Forum 14, no. 2 (Fall 1981): 85-120.
"The Folk Technics of Chain Carving." Studies in Traditional American Crafts 4 (September 1981): 3-20.
"Charlotte Burne, British Folklorist: A Re-examination." Folklore Women's Communication, no. 24 (Spring 1981): 14-19.
"Investigating Identity and Expression in Folk Art." Winterthur Portfolio: A Journal of American Material Culture 16, no. 1 (Spring 1981): 65-83.
"The Durlauf Family: Three Generations of Stonecarvers in Southern Indiana." Pioneer America: Journal of Historic American Material Culture 13, no. 1 (March 1981): 17-26.
"American Folklore vs. Folklore in America: A Fixed Fight?" Journal of the Folklore Institute 17, no. 1 (January-April 1980): 76-84 (with Stephen Stern).
"The Harris House and Related Structures in South-Central Indiana." Pioneer America: Journal of Historic American Material Culture 12, no. 1 (February 1980): 9-34.
"Reflections on Field Research in the Folklife Sciences." New York Folklore 6, nos. 3-4 (Winter 1980): 151-60.
"An Experiential Portrait of a Woodcarver." Indiana Folklore 13, nos. 1-2 (1980): 30-45.
"From Neglect to Concept: An Introduction to the Study of Material Aspects of American Folk Culture." Folklore Forum 12, nos. 2-3 (1979): 117-32 (with Stephen Poyser).
"Concepts in the Study of Material Aspects of American Folk Culture." Folklore Forum 12, nos. 2-3 (1979): 133-72.
"'We Live What I Paint and I Paint What I See': A Mennonite Artist in Northern Indiana." Indiana Folklore 12, no. 1 (1979): 5-17.
"Old Time Tunes on Edison Records." Journal of Country Music 8, no. 1 (May 1979): 95-100.
"Pictorial Jokes: A Traditional Combination of Verbal and Graphic Processes." Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 44, no. 4 (December 1978): 189-96.
"'Who Says?': A Further Investigation of Ritual Insults among White American Adolescents." Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore 4, no. 2 (Fall 1978): 53-69.
"A Re-Examination of Dozens among White American Adolescents." Western Folklore 37, no. 2 (April 1978): 118-28.
"Recent Folk Art Publications: A Review Essay." Mid-South Folklore 6, no. 1 (Spring 1978): 27-30.
"Country Music Tradition in Western New York State." Journal of Country Music 7, no. 1 (January 1978): 29-59.
"Country Music Culture in Central New York State." John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 13, no. 48 (Winter 1977): 171-82.
"'I Kicked Three Slats Out of My Cradle First Time I Heard That': Ken Kane, Country Music, and American Folklife." New York Folklore 3, nos. 1-4 (Summer-Winter 1977): 53-81.
"Bad Man Monroe Legends from the Delta Region of Mississippi." Mid-South Folklore 5, no. 2 (Summer 1977): 53-58.
"Peddler Traditions and Street Cries in Contemporary Perspective." New York Folklore 2, nos. 1-2 (Summer 1976): 2-16.
"Concrete Folklore: Sidewalk Box Games." Western Folklore 36, no. 2 (April 1977): 171-73.
"Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters: A Hillbilly Band in the Northern Tradition." John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 12, no. 42 (Summer 1976): 54-62.
"Sailor Men: Are Navy Rituals, Like Kissing the Royal Belly, Homophobic or Homoerotic?" American Sexuality Magazine (June 19, 2007).
"Atogaki ni Kaete: Beijin ni Kyoojyu no Komento. Jinbun-gaku ga Arata na Jyookyoo ni Taiou Suru Tame Ni." [Adjusting to New Conditions in the Humanities]. Bosei (January 1998), 64-65 [in Japanese].
"Fun Vanet Shtamstu?" [Where Are You From?] Der Onheib 26 (November 1997), 89-90. [creative essay in Yiddish on Holocaust theme]
"'Corn Enough to Make It Entertaining': An Interview with Lyle Miles." Old-Time Music, No. 45 (Spring 1989), 6-12.
"Stewart Culin, Museum Magician." Pennsylvania Heritage 11, no. 3 (Summer 1985), 4-11.
"Eugene Powell: 'Sonny Boy Nelson.'" Living Blues, no. 43 (Summer 1979): 14-25.
"John Baltzell: Champion Old-Time Fiddler." Old-Time Music, no. 27 (Winter 1977-1978): 13-14.
"Does the Peddler Yell Anymore? Preserving Barker Cries." Yorker Magazine 34 (February 1976), 11-13.
"The ASA Survey of Departments and Programs: Findings and Projections." American Studies Association Newsletter 31, no. 1 (March 2008): 11-19.
"How Well Do We Know the Amish?" Philadelphia Inquirer (October 11, 2006), A10.
"Beyond Interdisciplinarity: The New Goals of American Studies Programs." American Studies Association Newsletter 28, no. 1 (March 2005): 1-5.
"American Studies and Humanities: The Challenge to University Administration." American Studies Association Newsletter 27, no. 1 (March 2004): 7-9.
"Iz Yidn Dortn?" [Are Jews There?-Japan] Forward, June 20, 1997, pp. 1, 13.
"Tall Tales from College Folk." [full-page essay in Education Life magazine on college student culture] New York Times, August 4, 1991, Section 4A, p. 42.
Education
B.A.; M.A.; Ph.D. (Indiana)