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Jeana Jorgensen
Foxy Folklorist
Jeana Jorgensen studied folklore under Alan Dundes at the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to earn her PhD in folklore from Indiana University. She researches gender and sexuality in fairy tales and fairy-tale retellings, folk narrative more generally, body art, dance, sex education, and feminist/queer theory. Her blogging seeks to make academic research and concepts more broadly accessible, with a focus on not only bringing folklore to the broader public but also making claims about identity, narrative, and culture in an increasingly secular world.

Is Spain’s new menstrual leave policy a good idea?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chances are good that you know someone who suffers from intense menstrual distress: cramping, headaches, nausea, and diarrhea, just to name a few. You might even be that person. I’ve been lucky in that, despite having a uterus, it rarely acts up too badly. But I see it all around me: in family members, in friends, in students who email me to let me know their cramps are so awful,…

Overturning Roe v. Wade: Since when did the lives of women mean nothing?
Reading Time: 2 minutes I was almost impregnated by a child molester. I can’t go into too much detail, but I…

Why is teacher burnout so bad this semester?
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’m struggling to finish the semester. So are my colleagues. So are my students. So what gives?…

‘The Chair’ on Netflix: Thoughts from a disenchanted academic
Reading Time: 3 minutes I am what you might call a “disenchanted academic.” I went straight from high school to undergrad…

White supremacy is killing us in many ways, including COVID
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’ve been paying any attention, you know that white supremacy and related hate groups pose a…

Jada and Will’s open relationship is none of your business
Reading Time: 3 minutes While the main focus of the recent Oscars ceremony has been on the joke that played a…

When abortion is a joke
Reading Time: 5 minutes My college folklore professor Alan Dundes, a scholar often credited with creating the modern field of folkloristics,…

I would like to wish Republicans a very nice ‘shut-up about children forever’
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Senate Republicans interviewing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson can’t suddenly pretend to care about children, can they?…

Why I’m glad I didn’t read the Bible until high school
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I look back at my childhood, I guess I was a bit of a heathen growing…

Our future
Reading Time: 3 minutes It happened just like they teach it in schools. It wasn’t even the plane crashes that did…
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