Thomas A. DuBois
Halls-Bascom Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore, and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Contact: tadubois@wisc.edu
Department of German Nordic and Slavic
1360 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Blog: here.
Full CV available here.
Teaching
I teach courses in Nordic Studies, Folklore Studies, and Religious Studies in the Department of German Nordic and Slavic+. I am a big believer in academic service, particularly in what we at the UW call the "Wisconsin Idea," i.e. the active engagement of the university with its surrounding constituencies. I make it a goal to bring academic scholars into productive dialogue with members of the broader public, helping contribute to the intellectual and cultural life of our society.
I teach a variety of courses in the areas of Nordic and American folklore and religious studies. Scroll down to the end of my CV and you will find a listing of my recent courses. I am also faculty director of the Spark learning community, a residential living community for first-year students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I received a Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2017.
With graduate students and undergraduates alike, I try to follow a "learning with" rather than a "learning from" approach: i.e., I look for ways that we can collaborate on a research project, producing something in which we share tasks, insights, and responsibilities. You can find examples of research products that have resulted from such collaborations in my CV below.
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Media
"The Sámi People of the North" (2015)
UWMadison College of Letters and Science magazine for spring 2020 features an article by Katie Vaughn entitled "True North" discussing Tom's work as a consultant for Disney's Frozen II .
The article about Tom appears on pp. 22-27.
Research
As a folklorist, I teach and research on a range of topics having to do with the way people think about and use the idea of tradition in their lives. Most of my research focuses on Nordic cultures, especially Finnish and Sámi, although I am also interested in the relations of Nordic peoples with populations and ideas coming from elsewhere, including the Celtic world. My recent research and service has also included work on the repatriation of traditions among Wisconsin Anishinaabe people, particularly at the Lac du Flambeau reservation.
Some of my research is available in open access format at Academia.edu.
Folklore in the Nordic World. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press and Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2026.
co-authored with Coppélie Cocq. Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North. New Directions in Scandinavian Studies, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020.
co-edited with B. Marcus Cederström. Songs of the Finnish Migration: A Bilingual Anthology, based on the anthology Reisaavaisen Laulu Amerikkaan, edited by Simo Westerholm. Kaustinen and Madison: Kansanmusiikki-instituutti and the University of Wisconsin Press, Fall 2019.
Sacred to the Touch: Nordic and Baltic Religious Wood Carving. New Directions in Scandinavian Studies. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.
Co-edited with Steven P. Sondrup, Mark Sandberg, and Dan Ringgaard. Nordic Literature: A Comparative History. Volume 1. Spatial Nodes Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017.
Co-edited with Susan Brantly. The Nordic Storyteller: Essays in Honour of Niels IngwersenNewcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009.
An Introduction to Shamanism.Introduction to Religion. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Edited. Sanctity in the North: Saints, Lives, and Cults in Medieval Scandinavia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.
Lyric, Meaning and Audience in the Oral Tradition of Northern Europe. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 2006.
Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
Co-authored with Leea Virtanen. Finnish Folklore.Studia Fennica Folkloristica 9. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society in association with the University of Washington Press, 2000.
Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala. New York: Garland Publications, 1995.
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Translated. Johan Turi. An Account of the Sámi. Chicago: Nordic Studies Press, 2011.
Johan Turi—An Account of the Sámi. A Translation of Muitalus Sámiid birra, Based on the Sámi Original. Karasjok: ČáliidLágádus. (with authored afterword).
Johan Turi—Travel Accounts and Other Accounts. Translated by Thomas A. DuBois. Edited by Mikael Svonni. Translator's Preface.
Rávttas, Giron/Kiruna: Ravda Lágádus.
https://www.ravda.se/
Myths, Tales and Poetry from Four Centuries of Sámi Literature. An Anthology edited by Harald Gaski.Translated by Thomas A. DuBois and others. Karasjok: ČálliidLágádus, 2020.
