Meet Dr. Mould

Posted by Elly Fieffer

Biography

Tom Mould (he/him) is Professor of Anthropology and Folklore. He received his BA in English from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MA and PHD in Folklore from Indiana University. Mould is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and has served on the AFS Executive Board, Chaired the AFS Media and Public Outreach Committee, and serves on the Advisory Boards for the Journal of Folklore Research, and the Mormon Studies Book Series at Farleigh Dickinson University Press.

Before coming to Butler in 2019, he was the J.Earl Danieley Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Folklore at Elon University where he taught for 18 years and served in various roles including Director of the Honors Program, Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department, and Director of PERCS: The Program for Ethnographic Research and Community Studies. 

Areas of Research and Scholarship

Tom Mould teaches and publishes  in the areas of folklore, language and culture, American Indian studies, oral narrative, religious and sacred narrative, contemporary legend, identity, ethnography, genre, and performance theory. In  addition to numerous journal articles, he is the co-editor of two books—The Individual and Tradition (2011) and Latter-day Lore: Mormon Folklore Studies (2013)—and author of four more ChoctawProphecy: A Legacy of the Future (2003), Choctaw Tales (2004), Still, the Small Voice: Revelation, Personal Narrative, and the Mormon Folk Tradition (2011), and Overthrowing the Queen: Telling Stories of Welfare in America (2020), which won the Chicago Folklore Prize and the Brian McConnell Book Award from the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research.

He has also produced video documentaries for public television on folk art and culture in Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina and has written articles, blogs, and radio stories for a general audience on a range of topics including perceptions of welfare, the American Dream,  unemployment and public assistance, fake news, and the confederate flag.  

For a complete CV, click here. 

Current Research Projects

  • Choctaw Traditions: Life and Customs of the Mississippi Choctaw: This book will explore recent and contemporary traditions among the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians through the personal experience narratives and family histories shared by community members today. This research is based on current ethnographic fieldwork with tribal members as well as archival research. 
  • Internet Memes for Social Justice: This research explores the efficacy of internet memes to work towards social justice, specifically in the area of economic justice around issues of public assistance in the U.S. This research is a spin off from previous work studying the narratives people tell about public assistance in this country and how those stories shape perception and policy. 

Mentored Student Research Projects at Butler 

  • 2022—Ericela Sahagun. “Hispanic Hoosiers: Ethnonym use among the Hispanic population in Indianapolis.” Selected as a Butler Summer Institute Scholar. Departmental Honors Thesis.
  • 2022—Braxton Martorano, Cameron Ellison, Emily Fales, Donald Crocker. “Improving Racial Dialogue and Understanding through Stories.”
  • 2022—Kat Sandefer. “Bird’s Eye View: The Construction of Identity and Community via Social Media of Cirque du Soleil Performers.” Butler Honors Thesis.
  • 2022—Cameron Ellison. “Shaping Perspective: Analysis of Narrated Experiences of Students of Color at a Predominately White Institution..” Departmental Honors Thesis. 
  • 2022 —Kynnedy Masheck. “Russetid: Formal and Informal Rituals in the Norwegian Rite of Passage to Adulthood.” Departmental Honors Thesis. Presented at the annual conference of the Central States Anthropological Society April 25, 2021.
  • 2022—Christopher Luis Paez Reyna. “Land Acknowledgments and Resources for Butler University.”
  • 2021—Ericela Sahagun. “’Pero like…’: An analysis of the use of Chicano English among Hispanic populations in the Midwest.” Butler Summer Institute Scholar, 2020 and 2021. Presented at the annual conference of the Central States Anthropological Society April 25, 2021.
  • 2021—Kat Sandefer. “Constructing Local and Racial Identities Through Supernatural Legends.” 
  • 2021—Cecilia Januszewski. “Coding Choctaw Cultural Traditions.”

Upcoming and Current Butler Courses

  • FYS 101: The Power of Everyday Stories
  • AN 333: Folklore, Culture, and Society
  • AN 338: Language and Culture
  • AN 364: Native American Cultures
  • Topics: Video Ethnography
  • Thesis and Research Advisor