Bio's of the Board

Chairs

Folklorist Niina Hämäläinen works as an executive director of the Kalevala Society, Helsinki. She is interested in the oral-literary practices of the 19th century, especially disregarded genres of textualization, history of Finnish folklore studies and its gender bias, problems of archives and archival materials, as well as cultural history of emotions and family.

 

JoAnn Conrad is a professor of Folklore, Cultural History, and Anthropology. She has taught at UC Berkeley, Univ. of Missouri, UC Davis, Univ. of Iceland, and currently teaches at Diablo Valley College. Her fields of research include narrative, childhood, visual culture, and women’s history, with a particular interest in “the North.” She has published in JAF, Narrative Culture, Fabula, Ethnologia Europaea, and in several edited collections.

Secretary

Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir defended her PhD research titled: "Trapped within Tradition": Women, Femininity and Gendered Power Relations in Icelandic Folk Legends, at the Univeristy of Iceland in June 2022. Her research is rooted in both folkloristics and gender studies. Main research interests are: Folk Legends and legends as sources on society; folk belief; femininity and gender; and horror stories. Dagrún is currently teaching at the University of Iceland and a project manager for the Icelandic Museum Association.

Board Member

Rozemarijn van de Wal is a researcher at the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands Open Air Museum. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Groningen (obtained in 2022) for her book 'Dancing in the Kitchens of History: Eileen Power (1889-1940). The book is a non-traditional biography in which van de Wal - using the concept of scholarly persona - examines how Eileen Power was able to rise to prominence in the world of academia at a time when women were firmly related to the realm of amateurs. She is currently conducting research on intangible cultural heritage in relation to gender and diversity.