Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology - Tim Evans

Dr. Tim Evans

Associate Professor, Folk Studies

Office:  FAC 245
Phone:  270 745-5897
Email:  tim.evans@wku.edu

Courses

Folk 276: Introduction to Folk Studies (undergrad class)

Folk 280: Cultural Diversity in the US (undergrad class)

Folk 379: Topics in Folklore: Narratives of Horror and the Supernatural (undergrad class)

Folk 445/445G: American Architectural History

Folk 478: Folklore and Literature

Folk 561: Folk Art and Technology

Folk 562: Folklore and Education

Folk 572: Public Folklore

Bio

Current Office Hours: Monday 10:30-11:30, Wednesday 1-3

Degrees:

BA Anthropology, Colorado State University

MA Folklore, Indiana University

PhD Folklore/American Studies, Indiana University

I grew up in Colorado. In my 29 years as a folklorist, I have worked extensively in both academic and public folklore, including eight years as Wyoming State Folklorist. I have worked as a folklorist in Indiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska and Kentucky. I have been at Western Kentucky University since 1999. I have served on numerous panels and boards related to public folklore, and am currently on the executive board of the American Folklore Society.

Specialties/interests include American culture, public/applied folklore, material culture, folk art and architecture, American architectural history, the history of Folk Studies, the politics of culture, the American West, folklore and literature, fan culture, and science fiction. My research and publications include work on public folklore, the American West, western saddlemaking, Wyoming barns, the Arts and Crafts Movement, the writer/designer/socialist William Morris, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. From 1999-2008, I was editor of the AFS Public Programs Bulletin.

vita

Selected publications:

Authenticity, Ethnography, and Colonialism in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 21 (3) 2010.

King of the Western Saddle: the Sheridan Saddle and the Art of Don King. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi (Folk Art and Artists Series), 1998.

Piece-Sur-Piece Horse Barns on the Laramie Plains of Southeastern Wyoming: Cultural Interplay and Adaptation, Material Culture 38:1 (2006), 54-87.

A Last Defense Against the Dark: Folklore, Horror and the Uses of Tradition in the Works of H. P. Lovecraft, Journal of Folklore Research 42:1 (2005), 99-135.

Tradition and Illusion: Antiquarianism, Tourism and Horror in H. P. Lovecraft, Extrapolation 45:2 (2004), 176-195.

Folklore As Utopia: English Medievalists and the Ideology of Revivalism, Western Folklore 47:4 (1988), 245-268.