
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.

The folklore of tricks and tricksters
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ask a folklorist and you’ll get some of the history, but we’ll also go into how pranks and trickster figures in myth and folklore subvert the social order…in some cases just to circle back and uphold it. In other words, it’s complicated. Tricksters have been with us for a long time, populating myths, legends, and folktales. Greek myth gives us the trickster Hermes, who pulls one over on sun god…

For writers, ChatGPT is why we can’t have nice things
Reading Time: 3 minutes Like many of my colleagues, I’ve added a statement to my syllabi about the use of AI…

Living and teaching in an unruly body
Reading Time: 5 minutes
I’m not disabled. Not yet. If I had to state it succinctly without referencing any diagnoses: my…

Marrying the other: What animal marriage in folktales tell us about gender
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Folk tales are filled with stories of humans marrying animals. But the consequences are very different for…

Getting to know and love your vaginal fluids
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you’ve ever gone inside a large supermarket or pharmacy in the U.S., no doubt you’ve seen…

The terrible side effects of a post-Roe world
Reading Time: 3 minutes The side effects of the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade are causing a ripple of issues…

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ sends a terrible message about motherhood
Reading Time: 3 minutes Like any good nerd, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was at the top of my…

Abortion access is a disability justice issue
Reading Time: 3 minutes Pregnancy is dangerous even for mostly healthy, non-disabled people. According to the CDC, 700 women die a…

The ‘A’ in LGBTQIA: It doesn’t stand for ‘ally’
Reading Time: 3 minutes The LGBTQIA+ acronym has taken multiple forms and inspired many debates over which identities should be included.…

‘Minor Feelings’ by Cathy Park Hong is a book about anything but
Reading Time: 4 minutes Part of the task of fighting racism involves education: educating oneself about the many facets of white…
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