Information about Contributors

Ronald L. Baker is Chairperson and Professor of English at Indiana State University. He is the author of Jokelore: Humorous Folktales from Indiana (1986); Hoosier Folk Legends (1982); Folklore in the Writings of Rowland E. Robinson (1973); Indiana Place Names (1975); From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History (1995); Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless: The WPA Interviews with Former Slaves Living in Indiana (2000); and French Folklife in Old Vincennes ([1989] 1998). He is the editor of The Study of Place Names and has served as editor of Midwestern Folklore, Indiana Names, and The Folklore Historian. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the History and Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society in 1988, Indiana State University's Research/Creativity Award in 1990, and the President's Medal in recognition of exemplary performance as a faculty member at Indiana State University in 2000.

Janet L. Langlois is Associate Professor of English at Wayne State University, where she teaches courses in folklore and folklife studies, and is an advisory board member for the Wayne State University Press's Series in Fairy-Tale Studies. She authored Belle Gunness, the Lady Bluebeard (1985), and numerous articles on folk narrative—especially the contemporary legend, on folklore and literature, and on gender issues that have appeared in the Journal of American Folklore, Contemporary Legend, Marvels and Tales, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, among others. She is currently working on an ethnographic project recording mystical experiences narrated in hospice and other health-related settings.

James P. Leary is Professor of Folklore and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he also directs the Folklore Program and codirects the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures. Since the 1970s, his research on the traditional narrative, music, and handwork of participants in the Upper Midwest's diverse ethnic and occupational cultures has resulted in numerous media productions, museum exhibits, and publications such as Yodeling in Dairyland (1991), Wisconsin Folklore (1998), and So Ole Says to Lena: Folk Humor of the Upper Midwest (2001).

Carl Lindahl is currently Martha Gano Houstoun Research Professor of English and folklore at the University of Houston. His published work focuses on festival (including Cajun Mardi Gras Masks [1997]), folklore and literature (including Earnest Games: Folkloric Patterns in the Canterbury Tales [1987]), medieval folklore (including Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia [2000]) and, primarily, oral narrative. His recent books on narrative include Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana (1997), Perspectives on the Jack Tales (2001), and American Folktales from the Collections of the Library of Congress (2004). Recently, he explored how Lloyd Chandler, an Appalachian preacher, experienced and created artful mixtures of terror, awe, and ostension through the composition and performance of his song, "Conversation with Death" in "Thrills and Miracles: Legends of Lloyd Chandler," Journal of Folklore Research 41 (2004):125–80.

Elizabeth Tucker is Associate Professor of English at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. From 1991 to 1999 she served as Faculty Master of one of Binghamton University's residential colleges, where she conducted the fieldwork for the article herein. Most of her publications, including articles in International Folklore Review, Western Folklore, Indiana Folklore, Midwestern Folklore, and Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, focus on the folklore of women, adolescents, and children; she has also published poetry and memoir pieces. Currently a member of the editorial board of Voices, she has also served as editor of New York Folklore, as coeditor of Folklore Forum, and as president of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society. She is currently working on a book about campus legends, with an emphasis on ghost stories.