Willow Mullins
Lecturer in Scottish Ethnology
Address
- Street
-
50 George Square
Rm 4.37 - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
Background
Willow G. Mullins specializes in folklore, the study of vernacular culture, with a special interest in material culture, economics, tourism and museums, foodways, and death. Mullins has been engaged in a number of research projects leading to publications on felt; domestic horror and food in Shirley Jackson's novels; the unhomely and Irish national economics in Tana French's Broken Harbor; and a collaborative book on the gaps created by implicit disciplinary boundaries, entitled Implied Nowhere: Absence in Folklore Studies. Her current research largely returns to material culture: centering on the materiality of death and an edited volume on biopolitics, environmental sustainability, and weatherlore. New projects focus on cultural sustainability in domestic life and cultural sustainability in tourism.
Qualifications
Ph.D. Univeristy of Missouri, Folklore, Culture Studies, and Oral Tradition
M.Sc. University of Rhode Island, Textile Conservation
B.A. Brown University, Folklore
Responsibilities & affiliations
SIEF
AFS
Undergraduate teaching
For Us/For Others: Heritage, Cultural Sustainability, and Tourism (formerly Scotland & Heritage)
Scottish Studies 1A
Museums and Cultural Representation: Nine Conversations at the Scottish National Museum
Material Culture
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Research summary
My research has covered a wide range of ethnological and folklore related topics that center on the intersections of the material, the vernacular, cultural representation, and cultural sustainability. material culture, economics, cultural sustainability, museums and tourism, foodways, and death
Current research interests
Current research interests are focused on cultural sustainability in both tourism, out-facing representation, and domesticity, in-facing self-identity and cultural adaptability. I am working on projects that explore how the environment intersects culture and cultural development through daily practices like weatherlore and foodways.Past research interests
Past projects have centered on felt textiles from Central Asia, both their conservation and the narratives used to sell them as part of development and aid projects to western buyers; the intersection of economics and vernacular culture, in particular the use of authenticity as a marker of value; and the gaps created by the disciplinary history of folklore studies. Smaller projects have explored representations of domestic horror in fiction.Knowledge exchange
I am an active member of International Society for Ethnology and Folklore and the American Folklore Society. I typically present at 1-3 conferences per year. Current publishing projects are collaborative works with authors at universities in the US.
Conference details
American Folklore Society Annual Meetings since 2006
International Society of Ethnology and Folklore, since 2021
Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2008-2009
Textile Society of America, 2001-2002