Dr. Montana Miller
Associate Professor Dr. Montana Miller is a Harvard and UCLA-trained folklorist who has been teaching in the BGSU Department of Popular Culture since 2005. She left her career as a professional circus aerialist and high diver to “settle down” in a job that had more stability and health insurance. Dr. Miller plans to speak to us about the connections she draws between folklore (the study of tradition and creativity) and her own experiences as a stunt performer, an elite competitive skydiver, a storytelling aerialist, and an ethnographer doing research in cultures that navigate risk and fear constantly, as well as her commitment to empathy and respect regarding mental health issues that are faced by students today and her own efforts to balance such health struggles with her academic work and her artistic/athletic identity.
