Curriculum Vitae

Jeffrey A. Tolbert, PhD

jat639 [at] psu.edu

PhD in Folklore (PhD Minor in Mythology), Indiana University, 2016.

Current Position

Assistant Professor of American Studies and Folklore, Penn State Harrisburg

Teaching Experience

Penn State Harrisburg courses:

  • AMST 140/RLST 140: Religion in American Life and Thought (Spring 2020).
  • HIST 203: History of Monsters, Aliens, and the Supernatural (Fall 2018-present).
  • AMST 491: Digital Tools in the Humanities (Spring 2019).
  • AMST 530: Folklore and New Media (Fall 2018).
  • AMST 540: Ethnography of Technology and Media in the US (Spring 2019 & Spring 2020).
  • AMST 541: Ethnography and Society (Fall 2019).

Adjunct Instructor, Bucknell University:

  • UNIV 200: Visual Literacy in the Digital Age (Spring 2018). Interdisciplinary Perspectives (IP) course, co-taught with Prof. Janice Mann.

Adjunct Instructor, Anthropology, University of Baltimore, Fall 2014-Spring 2015:

  • ANTH 110: Cultural Anthropology (Fall 2014).
  • ANTH 115: Human Origins (Fall 2014-Spring 2015).

Adjunct Faculty, Anthropology Department, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Spring 2014:

  • F101: Introduction to Folklore.

Assistant Instructor, Indiana University Bloomington. Fall 2009-Spring 2013:

  • F256: Folklore and the Supernatural (Spring 2013).
  • F101: Introduction to Folklore (Fall 2012).
  • F256: Folklore and the Supernatural (Fall 2011).
  • F101: Introduction to Folklore (Summer 2011).
  • F253: The Supernatural (Spring 2011).
  • F131: Introduction to Folklore in the United States (Fall 2009-Fall 2010).

Publications

Books

Ed. (with Michael Dylan Foster), The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2016.

Articles and Book Chapters

With Bryan Rupert. 2019. “Local Cosmologies.” Semiotic Review, no. 8. https://www.semioticreview.com/ojs/index.php/sr/article/download/40/88?inline=1.

With Eric D.M. Johnson. 2019. “Digital Folkloristics: Text, Ethnography, and Interdisciplinarity.” Western Folklore 78 (4): 327–56.

With Vanessa Stevens. 2019. “Beyond Metaphorical Spectrality.” New Directions in Folklore 16 (1): 27–57. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/view/26726.

“‘The Sort of Story That Has You Covering Your Mirrors’: The Case of Slender Man.” In Slender Man Is Coming: Creepypasta and Contemporary Legends on the Internet, edited by Trevor J. Blank and Lynne S. McNeill, 25–50. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 2018. Reprinted from Semiotic Review (2013). http://semioticreview.com/index.php/thematic-issues/issue-monsters/22-the-sort-of-story-that-has-you-covering-your-mirrors-the-case-of-slender-man.

“‘Dark and Wicked Things’: Slender Man, the Folkloresque, and the Implications of Belief.” In Slender Man Is Coming: Creepypasta and Contemporary Legends on the Internet, edited by Trevor J. Blank and Lynne S. McNeill, 91–112. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2018. Reprinted from Contemporary Legend series 3, vol. 5 (2015): 38-61.

“Waiting for a Place: At Gravedigger’s Pub.” New Hibernia Review, vol. 20, no. 2 (2016): 9-14.

“A Deadly Discipline: Folklore, Folklorists, and the Occult in Fatal Frame.” In The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World, edited by Michael Dylan Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert, 125–43. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2016.

With Carlea Holl-Jensen: “‘New-Minted from the Brothers Grimm’: Folklore’s Purpose and the Folkloresque in The Tales of Beedle the Bard.” In The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World, edited by Michael Dylan Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert, 163–72. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2016.

“On Folklore’s Appeal: A Personal Essay.” New Directions in Folklore vol. 13, no. 1/2 (2015).

Book Reviews

Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The Life and Times of Henry Louis Rey, by Melissa Daggett. [2017. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on April 19th, 2019.

The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to Twenty-First-Century Chic. Ed. Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan. [2016. Lanham, MD: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press and Rowman & Littlefield.] Journal of American Folklore, vol. 131, issue 519 (Winter 2018): 101-103.

Humble Theory: Folklore’s Grasp on Social Life, by Dorothy Noyes. [2016. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on June 21st, 2018.

Putting the Supernatural in Its Place: Folklore, the Hypermodern, and the Ethereal, edited by Jeannie Banks Thomas. [2015. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.] Western Folklore. Review published on April 1st, 2017.

Hittin’ the Prayer Bones: Materiality of Spirit in the Pentecostal South, by Anderson Blanton. [2015. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on January 27th, 2016.

Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song Man, by Sean Williams and Lillis Ó Laoire. [2011. Oxford: Oxford University Press.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on September 28th, 2011. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jfrr/article/view/2994/2870.

Oral and Print Cultures in Ireland, 1600–1900, ed. Marc Caball and Andrew Carpenter. [2010. Dublin: Four Courts Press.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on June 16th, 2011. http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=114.

Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages, by Stephen Knight. [2009. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on September 15th, 2010. http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=1111.

War and Shadows: The Haunting of Vietnam, by Mai Lan Gustaffson. [2009. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.] Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Review published on May 5th, 2010. http://www.indiana.edu/~jofr/review.php?id=954.

Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses, by Elizabeth Tucker. Folklore Forum, Indiana University. [2007. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.] Review published on April 12, 2010. http://folkloreforum.net/2010/04/12/elizabeth-tucker-haunted-halls-ghostlore-of-american-college-campuses/.

Other Publications

With Ian Brodie. 2019. “Ostension.” In SAGE Research Methods Foundations, edited by P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, M.A. Hardy, and M. Williams. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036797093.

Presentations/Workshops

2017 Digital and Video Ethnography Summer Faculty Workshop (co-organizer).
Bucknell University Library & Information Technology.

2016 “Dark and Wicked Things”: Slender Man and the Implications of Belief. Paper presented (in absentia) at the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Miami, Florida, Friday, October 21st, 2016.

2016 Trends in American Folklore Study. Invited lecture, Riron Minzoku-gakkai, Kwansei Gakuin University, Umeda Campus, Osaka, Japan. February 26th, 2016.

2015 Slender Man and the Implications of Belief. Invited talk at symposium, “Slender Man is Coming: Internet Legend, Hoax and Attempted Murder.” Memorial University Newfoundland, Grenfell Campus. March 23rd, 2015.
http://research.library.mun.ca/8417/

2014 Panel chair: The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World. Annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Santa Fe, NM, November 5, 2014.

2013 “Some Swift Catastrophe”: The Seat of Kings and the Motorway. Paper presented at the joint conference of the IU Folklore/Ethnomusicology Department and the Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies, March 2, 2013.

2011 Feasting in Dingle: Contemporary Celtic Culture in the West of Ireland. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Thursday, October 13th, 2011.

2011 Scaring Yourself Silly: Fear and Folklore in Fatal Frame. Presentation at East
Asian Studies Center graduate student forum to benefit Japan, April 19th, 2011.
Indiana University.

2010 Workshop presenter: Zotero Citation Management Software. December 10th, 2010.

2009 With Carlea Holl-Jensen: “New-minted from the Brothers Grimm”: Fairy Tales as Metafictional Intertexts in Harry Potter. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Folklore Society, October 24, 2009, and the joint conference of the IU Folklore/Ethnomusicology Department and the Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies, March 28, 2009.

Grants, Scholarships and Awards

2014 American Folklore Society Student Travel Stipend for annual meeting.

2013-2014 Henry Glassie Award for Exemplary Skills as an Associate Instructor. Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University.

2012-2013 Folklore Fellowship, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana
University.

2011 International Enhancement Grant, Indiana University (language
study—Modern Irish).

2011 Konosuke Matsushita Memorial Foundation Research Grant for dissertation research in Ireland.

2008 Louise McNutt Fellowship, Indiana University.

2007 MALS Scholarship, Dartmouth College.

Other Training and Certification

2017 Digital Humanities Summer Institute. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada. June 12-16, 2017. Course: Extracting cultural networks from thematic collections.

Committees and Administrative Roles

2011 American Folklore Society abstract reviews technology assistant.

2010-2011 Vice president, Special Concerns Committee. Folklore and Ethnomusicology Student Associations, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University.

2010 Hoosier Folklore Society Meeting graduate student liaison, Indiana University.

Interviews, Media Appearances, Etc.

Parkinson, Justin. “The Origins of Slender Man.” BBC News. Accessed June 25, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27776894.