My research in this area focuses on traditional and contemporary cultural expressions of Sámi people in the Nordic countries, particularly in the Northern Sámi and Inari Sámi language areas. I am interested in continuities of tradition among Sámi people and the significance of an indigenous worldview in Sámi culture and activism. I teach a course in Sámi culture here at the University of Wisconsin, and have been fortunate to teach at the Department of Sámi Studies at the University of Umeå as well.

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Winter Migration.

Watercolor by Nicolaus Skum

Current research:

“Traditional Knowledge as Reflected in Johan Turi’s Muittalus samid birra”  Paper delivered at the conference “Johan Turi: Indigenous Author—Indigenous Authority” held at Umeå University, Sweden, 12 March, 2004.

“Blessed are the Meek: Leniency and Mercy in Sámi Legends”  Paper delivered at the Fifth Celtic-Nordic-Baltic Folklore Symposium on Folk Legends,” held at Reykjavík, Iceland, 15-18 June 2005.

Published research:

“With an End in Sight: Sympathetic Portrayals of ‘Vanishing’ Sámi Life in the Works of Karl Nickul and Andreas Alariesto.” Scandinavian Studies, 75/2 (2003): 181-200.

"Folklore, Boundaries and Audience in The Pathfinder.  In Sami Folkloristics.  Ed. Juha Pentikäinen.  Turku: NIF, 2000.  Pp. 255-274.

"Seidr, Sagas, and Saami: The Nature and Significance of Religious Exchange in the Viking Age." Northern Peoples, Southern States: Maintaining Ethnicities in the Circumpolar World.    Ed. Robert Wheelersburg. CERUM Northern Studies 1.  Umeå: CERUM, 1996.  Pp. 43-66.

"Insider and Outsider: An Inari Saami Case." Scandinavian Studies  67 no. 1 (Winter 1995): 63-77.