Michael Owen Jones (born 1942)^[1] is an American Folklorist and Emeritus Professor in the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).^[2]

Jones has wide-ranging research interests: he is particularly known for his research on folk medicine and on foodways but has also researched on other of genres of folklore including "folk belief, speech... arts and crafts and poetry".^[3]

Early life and education

Jones studied at the University of Kansas, earning a BA in history, Art and Political Science in 1960. He studied Folklore at Indiana University earning a MA in 1964 and a Ph.D. (in Folklore and American Studies) in 1970.^[3] His Ph.D. dissertation was titled 'Chairmaking in Appalachia; a study in style and creative imagination in American folk art'.^[4]

Career

Jones moved to a position at UCLA in 1968 in the Folklore and Mythology Program and remained there for the entirety of his career.^[3] He was a founding member of UCLA's Interdepartmental Program in World Arts & Cultures in 1973.^[2]

Jones has conducted fieldwork in "Western Canada and the Maritimes as well as Appalachia, the Great Plains, and Southern California".^[2]

Jones has authored over 230 academic works.^[2] He was also a general editor of the Folk Art and Artists Series, University Press of Mississippi.^[5]

In 2021, Jones co-launched the Archive of Feeling,^[6] "one of the largest databases of medicinal folklore from around the world",^[7] based in part on material collected by Jones that became part of the UCLA Archive of American Folk Medicine.^[8][9]

Recognition

He has received funding from a number of organisations, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, Skaggs Foundation, Canadian Museum of Civilization and the National Institutes of Health.^[2]

He is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society (AFS) and a former member of the AFS's executive board. He is also a former President of the AFS, serving in that role between 2004 and 2005.^[10] His Presidential Address focused on foodways.^[11]

Jones is also a former President of the California Folklore Society and has served as a council member of the California Council for the Humanities.^[9]

He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and also a Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and the Society for Applied Anthropology.^[2]

His book Frankenstein Was a Vegetarian: Essays on Food Choice, Identity, and Symbolism was nominated for the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year in 2022.^[12]

Selected publications

• Owen Jones, Michael; National Museum of Man (Canada) (1972). Why faith healing?. National Museum of Man. OCLC 911761180.
• Jones, Michael Owen (1975). The hand made object and its maker. Berkeley: University of California. ISBN 978-0-520-02697-1. OCLC 1131420358.
• Georges, Robert A. and Jones, Michael Owen (1980). People Studying People : the Human Element in Fieldwork. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-90649-5. OCLC 609849920.
• Jones, Michael Owen; Giuliano, Bruce; Krell, Roberta (eds.) (1981). Foodways and eating habits: directions for research. Los Angeles, Calif.: California Folklore Society. OCLC 9523461.
• Jones, Michael Owen (ed.) (1987). The World of the Kalevala: essays in celebration of the 150 year jubilee of the publication of the Finnish national epic. Los Angeles: UCLA Folklore and Mythology Publications. ISBN 978-0-915251-30-8. OCLC 19964341.
• Jones, Michael Owen; Moore, Michael Dane; Snyder, Richard Christopher (eds.) (1987). Inside organizations: understanding the human dimension. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage. ISBN 978-0-8039-3198-5. OCLC 609425734.
• Jones, Michael Owen (1993). Exploring folk art twenty years of thought on craft, work, and aesthetics. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87421-380-5. OCLC 1261982241.
• Jones, Michael Owen (1989). Craftsman of the Cumberlands: tradition & creativity. Lexington, Ky.: Univ. Pr. of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-1672-3. OCLC 231001023.
• Jones, Michael Owen (ed.) (1994). Putting folklore to use. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. 1994. ISBN 0-8131-1825-5. OCLC 28182139.
• Georges, Robert A; Jones, Michael Owen (1995). Folkloristics: an introduction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-32934-9. OCLC 32274290.
• Jones, Michael Owen (1996). Studying organizational symbolism: what, how, why?. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. ISBN 978-0-7619-0220-1. OCLC 797744750.
• Jones, Michael Owen (2017). Corn: a global history. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78023-816-6. OCLC 1120660784.
• Jones, Michael Owen; Long, Lucy M (eds.) (2017). Comfort food: meanings and memories. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi ISBN 978-1-4968-1084-7. OCLC 960741780.
• Jones, Michael Owen (2022). Frankenstein Was A Vegetarian: essays on food choice, identity, and symbolism. S.l.: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-3994-7. OCLC 1282006325.