Faculty by Area of Study | Department of American Studies

Our faculty members–as a group and individually–work in a number of diverse areas, and their placement under these concentrations represent each faculty member’s major research area(s). Please look through individual faculty pages to get a better sense of the interdisciplinarity of our department’s interests.

American Studies

Name	Research Interests	Email
Elizabeth Engelhardt	Southern cultures \| food \| Appalachia \| feminism \| literature \| region and place	e.engelhardt@unc.edu
Sharon P. Holland	critical race theory \| feminist theory \| queer theory/sexuality studies \| animal studies	pasharon@email.unc.edu
Timothy Marr	Nineteenth-Century American literary and cultural history \| Transnational American Studies \| religion in American culture \| Islam in/and America \| Herman Melville	marr@unc.edu
Michelle Robinson	19th and 20th century U.S. religious history \| 19th and 20th century American literature \| U.S. cinema	mmrobins@unc.edu

American Indian and Indigenous Studies

Name	Research Interests	Email
Daniel M. Cobb	American Indian and Indigenous Studies \| American Indian history \| politics and activism \| ethnohistorical methods \| biography and memory \| global indigenous rights	dcobb@unc.edu
Benjamin E. Frey	sociolinguistics \| language shift \| Cherokee language	benfrey@live.unc.edu
Keith Richotte Jr.	American Indian law and policy \| legal history \| constitutionalism	richotte@email.unc.edu

Folklore

Name	Research Interests	Email
Gabrielle A. Berlinger	material culture \| ritual \| jewish folklore & ethnology \| ethnography \| public folklore \| museum anthropology	gberling@unc.edu
Marcie Cohen Ferris	southern Jewish history \| food studies \| southern studies\| material culture	ferrism@email.unc.edu
Bernard L. Herman	material and visual culture \| folklore and folklife \| cultures of the American South \| vernacular art	blherman@email.unc.edu
Glenn Hinson	public folklore \| ethnography \| African American expressive culture \| American South	ghinson@unc.edu
Jocelyn Neal	commercial country music \| American popular music \| rhythm and meter \| music theory	jneal@email.unc.edu
Patricia Sawin	narrative \| discourse \| festival \| culture of adoption	sawin@unc.edu

Global American Studies

Name	Research Interests	Email
Timothy Marr	Nineteenth-Century American literary and cultural history \| Transnational American Studies \| religion in American culture \| Islam in/and America \| Herman Melville	marr@unc.edu
Rachel Willis	global American Studies \| transportation planning \| labor economics \| service-learning, experiential and higher education	Rachel.Willis@unc.edu

Digital Humanities

Name	Research Interests	Email
Robert Allen	digital humanities \| American cultural history \| family history	rallen@email.unc.edu
Seth Kotch	digital humanities \| modern south \| oral history \| criminal and social justice	sethkotch@unc.edu

Southern Studies

Name	Research Interests	Email
Elizabeth Engelhardt	Southern cultures \| food \| Appalachia \| feminism \| literature \| region and place	e.engelhardt@unc.edu
Marcie Cohen Ferris	southern Jewish history \| food studies \| southern studies\| material culture	ferrism@email.unc.edu
Bernard L. Herman	material and visual culture \| folklore and folklife \| cultures of the American South \| vernacular art	blherman@email.unc.edu
Glenn Hinson	public folklore \| ethnography \| African American expressive culture \| American South	ghinson@unc.edu
Seth Kotch	digital humanities \| American south \| oral history \| criminal and social justice	sethkotch@unc.edu