AFS President-Elect (2025, to serve as President 2026–27)
An AFS member since 1994, Jason Baird Jackson (he/him) is Ruth N. Halls Professor of Folklore and Anthropology at Indiana University (IU). Within AFS, he helped plan annual meetings in Tulsa (2020/2022) and Bloomington (2011) and has served as chair or member of numerous committees (publications, teaching, membership) and working groups (museums and public policy, communications, digital meetings, US-China, open access, teaching/big questions). A previous member of the Executive Board (2010-2012), he was the founding convener for the Folklore and Museums section and he is active in the Transitional Asia/Pacific Section. Combining museum and university work across his career, he established public folklore and curatorship graduate courses at IU and he has worked closely with many students who have gone on to become leaders in academic, museum, and public folklore. As a museum curator and director, he has curated, co-curated, or project managed more than twenty-five museum exhibitions and hosted many public programs. A three-time journal editor, he now edits the Material Vernaculars book series and is himself the author of numerous articles and book chapters. He is also the author or editor of several books, including the forthcoming volume Concept Work: Constructing Frameworks for Folklore Studies (IU Press, in press).
