Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby

Dr. Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby is a Professor of Russian Studies, Folklore, and Linguistics at the University of Kentucky's Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Her research focuses on identity and folklore in contemporary Russia, particularly exploring vernacular religion, urban rituals, and cognitive linguistics. She holds a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Virginia with minors in Folklore and Linguistics.

Her major works include Village Values: Negotiating Identity, Gender and Resistance in Urban Russian Life-Cycle Rituals (2008) and ongoing projects like Sacred Springs in the GULAG, examining Siberian religious practices and Soviet memory. She serves on editorial boards for journals like Folklorica and Sibirskii Filologicheskii Zhurnal, and is affiliated with the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research.

Her research interests span Russian/Siberian folk religion, urban rituals, verbal semantics, and cognitive linguistics. She explores how folk practices mediate between Soviet legacies and modern cultural shifts, particularly through sacred sites like Siberian holy springs linked to GULAG histories. Her work highlights negotiations of identity through folklore in post-Soviet spaces.