Text Message

Lucy Westenra to Harker Westenra

3:52 PM

Lucy: Harker, are you there??

Lucy: Harker, seriously, answer my text messages.

Lucy: Helloooo?

Lucy: If you don’t answer I am totally going to email your advisor and find out

where you are >:(

Lucy: FINE. I know you think I don’t pay attention when you talk about school but GUESS WHAT, I do. And I know your advisor’s name and I am 100% emailing him.

Lucy: Hark, where are you??

TULANE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

August Van Helsing

Associate Professor, Anthropology; Editor, Journal of Western Folklore

Areas of research:

Folklore

Urban legends

Contemporary representations of classic mythic structure

Folk tales of the Southern United States

August Van Helsing is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University, and became the editor of Journal of Western Folklore in 2011. He teaches such courses as: “Folklore and the Supernatural,” “What is Urban About Urban Legends?,” “Contemporary Ethnographic Practices,” and “Jungian Archetypes in Contemporary Fairy Tale Retellings.” Van Helsing has won the Tulane Undergraduate Teaching award four times.

His first book, Down There: Telling Tales in the American South, investigated representations of “Southernness” within iterations of tale types in the age of the Global South. His second book, Wolf, Where?, is a popular history monograph of Rougarou, the half-man/half-wolf of Louisiana legend, who was said to stalk the swamplands in search of blood. His current research focuses on the contemporary morality tale, with a focus on popular culture representations in our current moment of a shifting view of sexuality, and the attendant reversion to pre-modern fears of punishment and retribution.

Originally from Amsterdam, Van Helsing did his undergraduate work in the department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2003. For his dissertation work, he collected hundreds of variants of the supernatural legends told to explain the virtuosity of Louisiana blues musicians. These were collected in a chapbook published by the Folklore Society of Louisiana in conjunction with the Regional Ethnomusicology project. Van Helsing was visiting Professor of Folklore at UC Berkeley in 2014–2015.

Selected Academic Awards:

Graduate Award, University of Michigan—2003

Undergraduate Teaching Award, Tulane University—2006, 2007, 2013, 2016

Award for Excellence in Scholarship of Anthropology, presented by the Faculty Folklore Association, for “Where Wolves Howl: Blood and the Mark of the Beast,” in Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Folklore—2010

Sanderson Book Award: Wolf, Where?—2012

Email

Re: J. Harker Westenra

To: August Van Helsing ([email protected])

From: Lucy Westenra ([email protected])

Date: January 11, 2:02 PM

Dear Dr. Van Helsing,

My name is Lucy Westenra, and my brother, Harker, is one of your graduate students. (His first name is Jonathan but he never goes by that). I know this might be a bit out of the ordinary, but I haven't been able to get in touch with Harker and I was wondering if maybe he was traveling for something research-related? I know he can get really preoccupied when it comes to his studies, so I'm sure that's all it is, but I'm his sister so I worry. :)

Anyway, if you wouldn't mind letting me know when the last time was you saw him, it would sure put my mind at ease and I'd appreciate it a lot. Harker speaks so well of you, and I know how much he appreciates you as his advisor.

Thank you so much,

Lucy Westenra

(My phone number is 555-201-3264 if you would prefer to call. I'm a hotel manager so quite busy during the day, but leave a message anytime or text if you'd prefer).

_____

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." —Mae West

Email

Re: J. Harker Westenra

To: Lucy Westenra ([email protected])

From: August Van Helsing ([email protected])

Date: January 11, 4:09 PM

Dear Ms. Westenra,

Of course, I understand your concern—I, too, have a sibling.

To the best of my knowledge, there were no conferences in our field this week, though I can’t speak to whether or not your brother might have gone out of town for research purposes, or for personal reasons. With regard to the latter, I must confess that, though I am quite fond of your brother, and certainly respect him as a scholar, we do not have the kind of relationship that includes discussions of our personal lives. It is unlikely that I would have been the one to whom he would have mentioned such a trip.

Since Harker is currently on fellowship, I haven’t seen him around the department much this semester. I believe he attended the lecture of a visiting professor last month, and that is the last time I would have seen him. However, I have had communication from him as recently as the Friday before last, when he emailed me the work he’d accomplished that week and his plans for the week to come, as was his habit.

I don’t wish to draw attention to anything unnecessarily, but if there is legitimate concern as to his whereabouts, perhaps I should mention that I did not receive a Friday night missive from him this Friday past. This is unusual only because of Harker’s habit, of course, and not at all because it is required, expected, or typical of his peers. I had, however, grown used to receiving them, and I did notice when it didn’t come.

Please let me know if there is anything further I can do to assist you, Ms. Westenra. I hold your brother in high esteem, and would endeavor to help him if there is any need of it.

Best,

August Van Helsing

_____

Dr. A. Van Helsing

Department of Anthropology

Tulane University