Sheila Bock
Biography
Sheila Bock is an associate professor of interdisciplinary studies in the department of interdisciplinary, gender, and ethnic studies. She is a folklorist, which means she studies traditional, informal culture – the expressive forms that emerge from the ground up and communicate the beliefs and values of individuals and communities.
While folklorists do study what people recognize to be more profound genres, like creation myths and religious rituals, they also take seriously those things that many people write off as trivial, including jokes, contemporary (urban) legends, memes circulating on the Internet, and decorated mortarboards.
Bock’s diverse research interests include the contested domains of illness experience, vernacular health beliefs, material/digital enactments of personal and community identities, and the intersections between folklore and popular culture.
Education
- Ph.D., Ohio State University, English
- M.A., Ohio State University, Comparative Studies
- B.A., University of California, Berkeley, Anthropology
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Articles Featuring Sheila Bock
The Course: Expressive Culture of Death
From a new-found obsession with true crime podcasts to mourning rituals across cultures, this class examines the ways in which death captivates our attention.
Deliberate Infectors & Exotic Origins: The Folklore Behind COVID-19
Social media may have changed the medium, but the stories are often the same as people process the uncertainty and fear of pandemics.
Newsmakers 2018: Research
In 2018, faculty and students collaborated with one another and international colleagues on scientific exploration that sought to help people make sense of themselves and the world around them.
Signs of the Times
The emerging tradition of DIY decorated mortarboards offers professor insight into current day culture.