Tom DuBois

SIEF Vice President

tadubois(at)wisc.edu

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Thomas (Tom) DuBois is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore, and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US state of Wisconsin. With a PhD in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, he researches and teaches in the Department of German, Nordic and Slavic, with particular research emphasis on Nordic and Nordic-American cultures, as well as Indigenous North American nations. He has authored or edited some twelve books, including studies of Finnish folk song and folklore (Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala, 1995; Finnish Folklore, co-authored with Leea Virtanen 2000; Songs of the Finnish Migration, 2019), North European folk song (Lyric, , Meaning and Audience, 2006), Viking Age religion (Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, 1999), medieval Nordic saints’ lives (Sanctity in the North, 2018), shamanism (An Introduction to Shamanism, 2009), Nordic religious art (Sacred to the Touch, 2018), and contemporary Sámi media activism (Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North, co-authored with Coppélie Cocq, 2020). He has translated an array of Sámi literary works, particularly the writings of Sámi knowledge keeper and activist Johan Turi (1854-1936). Important in all his research are questions of identity and the strategic use of expressive culture to encapsulate understandings of the world and its workings.

In terms of service to the field, Tom has served as a co-editor of the Journal of American Folklore (2010-14), co-editor of the journal Scandinavian Studies (2015-19), and co-editor of the Journal of Finnish Studies (2021-). He has served on the Executive Board of the American Folklore Society (2020-22), and as the President of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (2013-15). Within the University of Wisconsin, he has served as a chair or director of various departments and programs and has worked on college-wide committees focused on the assessment of research and the development of curriculum. He has also served in this capacity at various Nordic universities in Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

His teaching includes undergraduate and graduate courses in Nordic Studies, Folklore Studies, and Religious Studies as well as experiential learning courses that involve students learning how to engage actively and responsibly with communities on research that the communities have identified as relevant and needed. He leads a residential living community for first-year students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, aimed at helping students learn about community-engaged research. For the last several years he has led an interdisciplinary project focused on building infrastructure and understanding between Sámi and Indigenous North American cultural and educational institutions.

Website:
https://tadubois.com