Alumni

Caitlin Barbera is a proud Coloradan and got her B.A. in History at Colorado College. While there, she became interested in the medieval history of East Central and Northern Europe, writing her undergraduate thesis on the interplay between paganism, Christianity, conversion and...Read more about Caitlin Barbera

Lissett Bastidas grew up in Peru, where she first learned about folklore. There and then, she realized that behind this concept were celebrations, contradictions, and inequalities that refer to the old, rural, Andean, Indian, Afro, or "traditional" in opposition to everything the "modern"...Read more about Lissett Bastidas

Regina Bendix is currently a Professor at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Here are a few of her own words about her time in Berkeley and since: "I came to Berkeley in February 1980, about to get married, and figuring out how to continue...Read more about Regina Bendix

Kate Brock (MA 2022) received a B.A. in Creative Writing and Music Business from Anderson University in Indiana prior to pursuing an M.A. in Creative Writing at University College Cork in Ireland. There her studies included poetry and folklore pertaining to the Hag of...Read more about Kate Brock

Lashon Daley is an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the National Center for the Study of Children's Literature at San Diego State University. Her book project, Black Girl Lit: The Coming of (R)age Performances in Contemporary U.S. Black...Read more about Lashon Daley

Cammeron Girvin received a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures with a Designated Emphasis in Folklore (2016). His research centers around the intersection of South Slavic linguistics and folklore studies; he is particularly interested in how speakers of Bulgarian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian...Read more about Cameron Girvin

Valdimar Tr. Hafstein is a Professor of Folklore and Ethnology at the University of Iceland. He received his MA in folklore in 1999 and his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with Alan Dundes and John Lindow. He has been a visiting professor at the...Read more about Valdimar Tr. Hafstein

Ross Jackson received his MA in Folklore in May 2013. Prior to entering the Folklore program, Ross received an MD degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and completed a Residency in Dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine. Ross practiced Dermatology for 30...Read more about Ross Jackson

Sarah Frances Levin received her PhD in Jewish Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Folklore from UC Berkeley in 2017. Her current book project, “Poetry Duels, Tales, and Jokes: Moroccan Atlas Mountain Muslims and Jews Remember Each Other,” examines 20th-century Jewish-Muslim relations...Read more about Sarah Levin

Julia (MA 2022) is the Othering and Belonging Institute's Campus Bridging Project Specialist. A non-binary former Peace Corps Volunteer who lived and worked with Youth in Development in Morocco, they received their Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and minor in...Read more about Julia Mckeown

Shakthi Nataraj received her PhD from the Anthropology program at UC Berkeley as well as the MA in Folklore. She examines narratives about sexual identity in Tamil Nadu, India, as they circulate between LGBT rights activists, lawmakers, journalists and novelists. She is especially...Read more about Shakthi Nakaraj