Elaine J Lawless (born 1947) is an American folklorist. She is Curators' Professor Emerita of English and Folklore Studies at the University of Missouri.[1] In 2008 she was elected president of the American Folklore Society.
Lawless gained a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1982. Her thesis title was 'Women's speech in the Pentecostal religious service: an ethnography' .[2]
Lawless is the author of 10 academic books and numerous articles.
Lawless's research has been in the fields of folklore studies, women's and gender studies, and religious studies. Her work has included studies of Pentecostalism; work on women's literature and women's narratives; human rights, social justice and violence against women.[1]
She has also co-produced two documentary films: Joy Unspeakable (with Elizabeth Peterson)[3] and Taking Pinhook (2014) (with Todd Lawrence).[4]
In 2003, she founded and was the producer of the Troubling Violence Performance Project, with Professor Heather Carver of the University of Missouri Theatre Department.[1]
Between 2000 and 2005 Lawless was editor of the Journal of American Folklore.[5] Lawless served as President of the American Folklore Society (AFS) from 2008 to 2009.[6]
In 2019, Lawless and Tim Lawrence received the AFS's Chicago Folklore Prize (for the best book of folklore scholarship of the year), for their book: When They Blew the Levee: Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri.[7]
A travel award from the Folk Belief and Religious Folklife Section of the AFS is named in Lawless's honour.[8]