Kari Sawden, BA English (Augustana), MA English (Alberta), MA Folklore (Cork), PhD Folklore (Memorial)
Assistant Professor - Social/Cultural Studies
Email: ksawden@grenfell.mun.ca
Phone: (709) 639-2392
Research interests/expertise
Divination, especially in contemporary contexts; folk beliefs and alternative spirituality; representations of folklore and the supernatural in popular culture; narrative as a means for the expression of and exploration into belief.
Teaching
Introduction to Folklore, Newfoundland Folklore, Oral literature, Language and Play, Supernatural Folklore, Folklore and Popular Culture, Folk Religion, The Anthropology of Food.
Representative scholarly contributions
Sawden, Kari. Forthcoming. “One by friend, one by foe, and one by family”: How Prophecies and Curses Influence Identity Construction in the World of
The Vampire Diaries.” In
Vampires Fully Alive: The Vampire Diaries
as Postmodern Storytelling, eds. Kimberley McMahon-Coleman, Iris-Aya Laemmerhirt, and Nina Vanessa Weber. MacFarland.
Sawden, Kari. 2020. “‘I have my version and you have yours’: Folklore, Narrative, and the (Re)Telling of
Supernatural.” In
Supernatural Out of the Box: Essays on the Metatextuality of the Series, eds. Lisa Macklem and Dominick Grace. 135-150. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Sawden, Kari. 2018. “This I Know to be True:
Ethnology, Divination, and the Processes of Authenticity.” Ethnologies 40, no. 2: 93-110.
Sawden, Kari. 2017. “A Shared Inheritance: The Interrelationship Between Divination and Charming in 21st Century Canada.”
Incantatio: An International Journal on Charms, Charmers and Charming, 6: 117-136.