Tim Frandy is a Sámi- and Finnish-American born and raised on Anishinaabe Aki in northernmost Wisconsin on the south shore of Gitchi-Gami, Lake Superior, amidst the region’s thousands of lakes and deep forests of pine, birch, maple, and balsam. Growing up in close relation with the woods and waters, the seasons and weather, the plants and animals has guided Frandy’s work on Indigenous sustainabilities, eco-relationality, and the Indigenization of ecological management, education, and health care systems.

Trained as a folklorist, Frandy’s work involves traditional culture, decolonization, environments, education, and cultural revitalization, having conducted ethnographic fieldwork with Indigenous reindeer herders, salmon fishermen, birchbark canoe builders, ceremonial leaders, musicians, artists, activists, and educators in five countries.

Frandy’s recent translation of Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar (2019) is the first polyvocal anthology of Sámi oral tradition ever published in English, and their co-edited volume with B. Marcus Cederström on public folklore praxis Culture Work: Folklore for the Public Good (2022) explores the theory and praxis of building vibrant public humanities and arts programs through community collaboration. Culture Work was listed as one of Smithsonian Magazine’s Best Books of 2022.

Frandy is currently working on a monograph on Sámi environmentalisms, and on a co-edited volume with Selina Morales and Phyllis May-Machunda on decolonization and folklore studies.

Scholarly Books (in print)

Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar. Editor & Translator. A.V. Koskimies & T. Itkonen, compilers. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2019.

Culture Works: Folklore for the Public Good. Co-edited volume with B. Marcus Cederström. University of Wisconsin Press, 2022.

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles & Book Chapters

“Níksókowaawák as Axiom: The Indispensability of Comprehensive Relational Animacy in Blackfoot Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing.” Authored by the Itsiipootsikimskai Collective. Society and Natural Resources. [under review]

“Between the Forest and the Freezer: Hunting Culture and Firearms in the Upper Midwest.” In Robert Glenn Howard and Eric Eliason, Gunlore: American Traditions About Firearms. University of Mississippi Press. Under contract. [Forthcoming, 2023].

“How to Make a Noise Like a Worm: Fishing Guides, Tourism, and Identity in the Northwoods.” In The Northern Midwest and the US-Canadian Borderlands: Essays on a Forgotten Region. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. [Forthcoming, 2023]

Kulttuurinen pos pyyhkiminen, resilienssi ja jatkuvuus: kertomuksia saamelaisten muuttoliikkeestä ja nykykulttuurista Yhdysvalloissa” [“Erasure, Resilience, Continuity: Narratives of Sámi Migration  and Contemporary Culture in the United States”] With Ellen Marie Jensen. In Eds. Miika  Tervonen & Johanna Leinonen, Vähemmistöt Muuttajina: Näkökulmia Suomalaisen Muuttoliikehitorian Moninaisuuteen. Turku: Migration Institute of Finland, 2022: 51-70.

Mas Amas Diehtá Maid Oarri Borrá [How Does a Stranger Know What a Squirrel Eats?]: Constructing Sustainability in Sápmi.” Journal of American Folklore 134(531) (2021): 53-78.

With Feet on Common Ground: Folklore, Science, and Education.” Journal of Folklore and Education 5.1 (2018): 5-12.

“A Curriculum of Wonder: An Interview with Mark Wagler.” With Mark Wagler. Journal of Folklore and Education 5.2 (2018): 142-53.

Indigenous Sustainabilities: Decolonization, Education, and Collaboration at the Ojibwe Winter Games.”
With B. Marcus Cederström and Colin Connors. Journal of Sustainability Education. May 2018.

Indigenizing Sustainabilities, Sustaining Indigeneities: Decolonization, Sustainability, and Education.” Journal of Sustainability Education. March 2018.

“Fishing for Meaning on the Deatnu River: Sámi Salmon Harvesters, Tourist Anglers, and the Discourse of Place.” In Eds. Dan Ringgaard and Thomas DuBois. Nordic Literature: A Comparative History. Volume I: Spatial Nodes Eds. Stephen Sondrup and Mark Sandberg. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2017: 662-71.

“Sustainable Power: Decolonizing Sustainability through Anishinaabe Birchbark Canoe Building.” With B. Marcus Cederström. In Going Beyond—Perceptions of Sustainability in Heritage Studies No. 2. Ed. Marie-Theres Albert. Berlin: Springer, 2017: 217-230.

Heritage Repatriation and Educational Sovereignty at an Ojibwe Public School.” With B. Marcus Cederström, Thomas A. DuBois, and Colin Connors. Journal of Folklore and Education 3 (2016): 31-41.

Suden Kaikki Nimet: Sudet ja Dekolonisaatio Saamenmaassa” [“All of the Wolf’s Names: Wolves and Decolonization in Sápmi”]. In Suden Kanssa. Eds. Outi Ratamäki, Juha Hiedanpää. Rovaniemi, Finland: University of Lapland Press, 2015: 42-65.

“Building a Student Centered Classroom with Augmented Reality.” In Mobile Media Learning: Iterations and Innovations. Pittsburg: ETC, 2015: 101-108.

“Revitalization, Radicalization, and Reconstructed Meanings: The Folklore of Resistance During the Wisconsin Uprising.” Western Folklore 72.3-4 (Summer/Fall 2013): 122-41.

“Examining Augmented Reality as a Platform for Situated Ethnography Through the Lens of the ARIS Wisconsin Uprising Game.” With Carrie Roy. Journal of American Folklore 126 (2013): 70-78.

“Skiing Down the Demon Wolf: Redefinition of the Predator in Johan Turi’s Sápmi.” Scandinavian Studies 83.4 (2011): 545-72.

“Lust, Labor and Lawlessness: The Bad Finn in Finnish-American Folksong.” Journal of Finnish Studies 14.1 (2010): 29-45.

“Ecology and Identity in the Northwoods: Finnish-American Poaching Techniques and Narratives.” In Wild Games: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Hunting and Fishing in North America. Ed. Eric Eliason, Dennis Cutchins. University of Tennessee Press, 2009: 166-82.

“‘There’s Iron in the Earth!’ Earthiness and Reason in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula” Journal of Finnish Studies 11.2 (2007): 47-60.

Selected Multimedia Works

Harvesting Traditions.Museum Exhibition consultant. Chippewa Valley Museum. 2017-2019.

Birchbark Canoes and Wild Rice. Co-director, with Thomas DuBois & Marcus Cederstrom. Film. 2016.

Wiigwaasi-Jiimaan: These Canoes Carry Culture. Co-director, with Thomas DuBois, Marcus Cederstrom, Colin class=”apple-converted-space”> Connors, & Carrie Roy. Film. 2015.

Changing Currents. Museum Exhibition consultant. Chippewa Valley Museum. 2013-.

Selected Literary Nonfiction

“Dream Journal, July 31, 1985.” Great Lakes Anthology of Indigenous Writing. Eds. Ron Riekki & April Lindala. Forthcoming.

“Birchbark Canoe Building and Decolonizing Health.” The Community Psychologist. 48.1 (Winter 2015): 25-27.

“Where the Embers Meet the Dawn.” Báiki 38 (Summer 2015): 24.

“Cutting Birch Leaves at Giđajohka: Learning to See the Reindeer Forest.” Báiki 36 (Winter 2013): 11-17.

“Tidevannet Stiger [The Tide is Rising].” Trans. Bernhard Ellefsen. Vagant 3 (2011): 12-13.

“The Wild Reindeer at Áhkobákti and Other Noaidi Tales” Báiki 30 (Summer 2008): 8-10.

2021 – WKU’s PCAL Faculty Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities

2020 – American Folklore Society’s Folklore and Science Section Folklore and Science Prize

2018 – University of Wisconsin-Madison Community-University Partnership Award

2016 – Wisconsin Without Borders Excellence Award for Group Achievement in Globally Engaged Service Learning

2019 – co-advisor for Ellen Marie Jensen, Ph.D. dissertation, University of the Arctic in Tromsø, Diasporic Indigeneity and Storytelling Across Media: A Case Study of Narratives of Early Twentieth Century Sámi Immigrant Women