- Ph.D., University of Texas, 1975
John Holmes McDowell
Professor, Folklore and Ethnomusicology
Editor, Journal of Folklore Research Reviews
Director of Undergraduate Studies
- mcdowell@indiana.edu
- (812) 855-0390
- 800 E. 3rd St., 243
- Office Hours
Education
Research interests
- speech play and verbal art
- the corrido of Greater Mexico
- music, myth, and cosmology in the Andes
- commemoration
- folklorization
- ethnopoetics
- Latin America
- the United States
Courses recently taught
- Constructing Tradition
- Folklore of Latin America
- History of Folklore Study
- Readings in Ethnography
- Folklore of Student Life
- Children’s Folklore
- Myth, Cosmos, & Healing in Latin America
- Ethnopoetics
Awards & Distinctions
- Named Fellow of the American Folklore Society (2004)
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellow: “Poetry and Violence on Mexico’s Costa Chica” (1994)
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Interpretive Research: “Hispanic Folk Poetry in Performance” (1988-90)
- Fulbright Lectureship in Ghana, West Africa (1987-88)
- Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship, Columbia (1978-79)
- Chicago Folklore Prize for Children’s Riddling (1979)
Books
Publication highlights
-
Animal Tales from the Caribbean, collected by George List, co-edited and introduced by John Holmes McDowell and Juan Sebastián Rojas. Special Publications of the Folklore Institute. Indiana University Press.
- ¡Corrido! The Living Ballad of Mexico’s Western Coast. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015).
- "Surfing the Tube for Latin American Song: The Blessings (and Curses) of YouTube." Journal of American Folklore 128 (2015): 260-272.
- "The Ballad of Narcomexico." Journal of Folklore Research 49 (2012): 249-274.
- Special Issue Editor. "With His Pistol in His Hand for Fifty Years: Folklore's Genealogies and the Intellectual Legacy of Américo Paredes." Journal of American Folklore. 125 (2012).
- Inga Rimangapa Samuichi: Speaking the Quechua of Colombia. Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Indiana University, 2011. (With Francisco Tandioy Jansasoy and Juan Eduardo Wolf)
- "Coaxing the Corrido: Centering Song in Performance." Journal of American Folklore. 23 (2010):129-149.
- "The True Lineage of Juan Oso." Journal of Folklore Research. 47 (2010):325-349.
- "Rethinking Folklorization in Ecuador: Multivocality in the Expressive Contact Zone." Western Folklore. 69 (2010):181-210.
- “Traditional Music and Dance of Mexico’s Costa Chica.” EVIADA (Ethnomusicology Video). (Bloomington: Indiana University, 2008).
- Poetry and Violence: The Ballad Tradition of Mexico’s Costa Chica. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000 ).
- “So Wise Were Our Elders”: Mythic Narratives of the Kamsá. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994).
- Sayings of the Ancestors: The Spiritual Life of the Sibundoy Indians. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989).
- Children’s Riddling. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979).
The College of Arts