Susan G. Davis
Contact Information
Office: 235 Greg Hall
Telephone: (217) 244-4240
Email: sgdavis@uiuc.edu
Professor; Joint appointment in Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Bio
Susan G. Davis is a scholar of folklore and communication. Her research focuses on the significance of vernacular culture in every day life; the ethnography of commercial culture; the politics of culture and cultural research.
In Fall 2008 she is teaching a course on campus culture and the folklore of students for the Ethnography of the University of Illinois project, and an introduction to folklore research for graduate students.
Professor Davis's current research looks at the life and work of Gershon Legman (1917 -- 1999), social critic, folklorist of sex and historian of censorship.
Curriculum Vitae
Experience
- Extensive field and archival research into festivals, tourism, parades, dance traditions, oral history, theme parks, commemorations, and historical performances.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Selected Publications
Davis, S. (2004). Eros meets civilization: Gershon Legman confronts the post office. In Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (Eds.), Serpents in the garden: Liaisons of sex and culture. Oakland, CA: AK Press.
Davis, S. (2003). Proverbial wisdom: Every dog shall have its day. Qualitative Inquiry, 9, 822-827.
Davis, S. (2003). Space jam: Media conglomerates build the entertainment city. In Gail Dines and Jean Humetz (Eds.), Gender, race, and class in media: A text-reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Davis, S. (2002). Tourism and leisure. In J. C. Agnew (Ed.), Blackwell's companion to American cultural history. Oxford: Blackwell.
Davis, S. (2002). Shopping. In R. Maxwell (Ed.), Culture works: Studies in the political economy of culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Davis, S. (1997). Spectacular nature: Corporate culture and the SeA World experience. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press