As a folklorist, I am interested in all aspects of traditional life, including narrative, music, customs, and material culture. My research has focused primarily on Finnish and Sámi materials, particularly in a wider Nordic context.

Books:

Lyric, Meaning, and Audience in the Oral Tradition of Northern Europe.  Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.

co-authored with Leea Virtanen. Finnish Folklore.  Studia Fennica Folkloristica 9.   Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society in Association with the University of Washington., 2000.

Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala. New York: Garland Publications, 1995

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Selected Articles and Papers:

"The Little Song-Smith: A Printed Folksong Anthology and Its Reception among Ingrian Peasants, 1849-1900" In Folk Song: Tradition, Revival, and Re-Creation.  Ed. Ian Russell and David Atkinson.  Aberdeen: The Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, 2004.  Pp. 41-52.

“Dynamics and Continuities of Tradition—What a Finnish Epic Song Can Teach Us About Two Old Norse Poems” In Dynamics of Tradition: Perspectives on Oral Poetry and Folk Belief. Ed. Lotte Tarkka.  Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2003.  Pp. 233-247.

 “Narrative Expectations and the Sampo Song.”  Scandinavian Studies 73 no. 3 (2001): 457-474.

"The Kalevala  Received: From Printed Text to Oral Performance" Oral Tradition 11 no.2 (1996): 270-300.

"From Maria to Marjatta: The Transformation of an Oral Poem in Elias Lönnrot's Kalevala." Oral Tradition  8 no. 2 (1993): 247-288.