Dr. Andrea Kitta
Associtate Professor at East Carolina University
About
Andrea Kitta is a folklorist with a specialty in medicine, belief, and the supernatural. She is also interested in Internet folklore, narrative, and contemporary (urban) legend. Her current research includes: vaccines, pandemic illness, contagion and contamination, stigmatized diseases, disability, health information on the Internet and doctor/patient communication. She is co-editor for the journal Contemporary Legend, a scholarly journal published annually by the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research.
Dr. Kitta is the recipient of the Bertie E. Fearing Award for Excellence in Teaching (2010-2011), and her monograph, Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception, won the Brian McConnell Book Award in 2012. She also participated in the 2012 US-China Exchange Program between the American Folklore Society and the China Folklore Society. Her research on vaccines won the Bernard Duval Prize at the Canadian Immunization Conference and she received the Graduate Student Union's Award for Teaching Excellence for 2008.
She is currently working on The Kiss of Death: Contamination, Contagion, and Folklore (Utah State University Press).
Education
- BA in History, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
- MA in Folk Studies, Western Kentucky University
- Ph.D. in Folklore, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Research Interests
- Folklore--Medicine, Belief, and the Supernatural
- Internet Folklore
- Doctor/Patient Communication
Selected Publications and Presentations
- 2015 ¤ Diagnosing Folklore: Perspectives on Health, Trauma, and Disability with Trevor Blank. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. (In press).
- 2015 ¤ The History of the Anti-Vaccination Movement and Perceptions about Vaccine, Invited Lecture, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Newfoundland. March 24, 2015.
- 2015 ¤ Belief in Slender Man, Invited Lecture, Slender Man Symposium, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Newfoundland. March 23, 2015.
- 2014 ¤ "On Ebola," October 30, 2014. Published on the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research's website. http://contemporarylegend.org/2014/10/30/on-ebola/
- 2014 ¤ "Response to 'Why I Can't Stand White Bellydancers,'" April 7, 2014. Published on the American Folklore Society's website. http://www.afsnet.org/news/167898/Response-to-Why-I-Cant-Stand-White-Bellydancers.htm
- 2014 ¤ "Because I'm Smart": The HPV Vaccine and Representations of the Antivaccinators. November 6. 2014. American Folklore Society, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- 2014 ¤ The Power of Stories: Folklore, Urban Legends, and Medicine. April 1, 2014. Arts@Science East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina.
- 2013 ¤ Untellability and the Stigmatized Vernacular among Dancers with Chronic Pain. October 19, 2013 American Folklore Society, Providence, Rhode Island.
- 2012 ¤ Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception. Routledge.
- 2011 ¤ "Intimate Territories: Everyday Conflicts over Guarding the Meaning, Ownership, and Integrity of Bodies." American Folklore Society, Bloomington, Indiana.
- 2011 ¤ Kitta, Andrea, N. DeLeon, and J. Jorgensen. "The Living Traditions of Belly Dance: Embodied Knowledge, Practice, and Theory." American Folklore Society, Bloomington, Indiana.
- 2011 ¤ "Folklore and Medicine." Fife Folklore Conference, Logan, Utah.
- 2010 ¤ "The History of the Anti-vaccination Movement and Perceptions of Vaccines." History of Medicine Lecture Series, Greenville, North Carolina.
- 2010 ¤ "Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Understand Public Concerns and Provide Information." Canadian Immunization Conference, Quebec City, Quebec.
- 2010 ¤ "'That Has to be an Urban Legend': Lay Understanding of Unusual Medical Information." American Folklore Society, Nashville, Tennessee.
- 2009 ¤ "'Polio Pics' and 'The Doctor from Toronto': The Use of Vaccination Contemporary Legends by the Public and the Medical Community." American Folklore Society, Boise, Idaho.
- 2009 ¤ "Folk Medicine" for Women's Encyclopaedia, Locke, Liz, Theresa A. Vaughan, and Pauline Greenhill, eds. Encyclopedia of Women's Folklore and Folklife. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 220-222.
- 2009 ¤ "Vampire" for Women's Encyclopaedia, Locke, Liz, Theresa A. Vaughan, and Pauline Greenhill, eds. Encyclopedia of Women's Folklore and Folklife. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 673-675.
- 2009 ¤ "Bellydance" for Women's Encyclopaedia, Locke, Liz, Theresa A. Vaughan, and Pauline Greenhill, eds. Encyclopedia of Women's Folklore and Folklife. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 46-48.
- 2008 ¤ A Shot in the Dark: Lay Perception of Inoculations and Anti-Vaccination Discourse, November 30, 2008. Canadian Immunization Conference. Toronto, Ontario.
- 2007 ¤ The Anti-Vaccination Movement: Conspiracy, Legend, and Risk Perception, November 1, 2007. Pediatric Grand Rounds, Health Sciences Centre, St. John's, Newfoundland.
- 2007 ¤ "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly": The Stigmatization of Immunization Resistant Individuals, October 2007. Joint Meeting of the American Folklore Society and the Folklore Studies Association of Canada. Quebec City, Quebec.
- 2007 ¤ Vaccination and Risk Perception - Why You Should Listen to a Folklorist, January 17, 2007. Community Health Lecture Series, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland.
- 2006 ¤ Vaccine Reaction: An Analysis of the Content and Design of Anti-Vaccination Websites, October 2006. Annual Conference of the American Folklore Society. Milwaukee, Minnesota.