Staff

Janet C. Gilmore holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University. She is a folklorist with extensive public sector experience and particular expertise in commercial fishers in the Pacific Northwest, material culture, and foodways.

James P. Leary was born and raised in northern Wisconsin and, since the early 1970s, has focused his research on the folklore of the Upper Midwest’s diverse peoples, with particular emphases on musical and narrative performances, on pluralism and creolization, and on public folklore.

Ruth Olson holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, and teaches in the Department of Comparative Literature and Folklore Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Anna Rue is Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and is associated with the Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest Project. She holds a Master’s in American Studies from the UMass-Boston and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies and Folklore from UW-Madison.

Joe Salmons is the Lester W.J. “Smoky” Seifert Professor of Germanic Linguistics. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy (UNC-Charlotte, 1978) and a Ph.D. in Germanic linguistics (University of Texas at Austin, 1984). He works to integrate research in linguistics with teaching and outreach beyond the university.