Daniel Wojcik’s book Outsider Art: Visionary Worlds and Trauma provides a comprehensive guide through the contested terrain of outsider art, art brut, visionary art, "art of the insane," and folk art. Wojcik situates such art in broader vernacular traditions, while also analyzing the ways that trauma and adversity have inspired the art-making process in potentially therapeutic ways.... Read more
Daniel Wojcik

Publications
Books and Edited Volumes:
Artist as Astronaut: The Otherworldly Art of Ionel Talpazan.
Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spiritualities. Special Issue, Traditiones: The Journal of the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology 50 (3), 2021 (co-editors István Povedák & Jurij Fikfak).
Outsider Art: Visionary Worlds and Trauma.
The End of the World As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America.
Punk and Neo-Tribal Body Art.
Selected Essays:
"Inside the Art of Outsiders" (Chapter 1) from the book, Outsider Art: Visionary Worlds and Trauma. [Click here to read]
"Between Madness and Art: Insanity, Therapy, and the Origins of Outsider Art" (Chapter 2) from the book, Outsider Art: Visionary Worlds and Trauma. [Click here to read]
"The Virgin and the Bomb: The Bayside Apparitions, Cold War Anxieties, and Marian Anti-Communism." In Cold War Mary: Ideologies, Politics, and Marian Devotional Culture, ed. Peter Jan Margry, pp. 231-260. Leuven University Press, 2020. [Click here to read]
"Marian Apocalypticism." In The Oxford Handbook of Mary, ed. Chris Maunder, pp. 648-663. Oxford University Press, 2019.
"Miraculous Photography: The Creation of Sacred Space through Visionary Technology." In Expressions of Religion: Ethnography, Performance, and the Senses, ed. Eugenia Roussou, Clara Saraiva, and István Povedák, pp. 123-153. Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2019.
"A Saxophone Divine: Experiencing the Transformative Power of Saint John Coltrane’s Jazz in San Francisco’s Fillmore District" (co-author Peter Jan Margry). In Spiritualizing the City: Agency and Resilience of the Urbanesque Habitat, ed. Victoria Hegner and Peter Jan Margry, pp. 169-194. Routledge, 2016. [Click here to read]
"Art and Trauma." Raw Vision: International Journal of Intuitive and Visionary Art (Fall 2016): 48-55. Excerpt from the book, Outsider Art: Visionary Worlds and Trauma (Chapter 5). [Click here to read]
"John Coltrane Church (Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church)" (co-author Peter Jan Margry). World Religions & Spirituality Project, 2016. [Click here to read]
"Avertive Apocalypticism." In the Oxford Handbook of Millennialism, ed. Catherine Wessinger, pp. 66-88. Oxford University Press, 2011. [Click here to read]
"Spirits, Apparitions, and Traditions of Supernatural Photography." Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation 25 (March-June 2009): 109-136. [Click here to read]
"Pre's Rock: Pilgrimage, Ritual, and Runners' Traditions at the Roadside Shrine for Steve Prefontaine." In Shrines and Pilgrimage in Contemporary Society: New Itineraries into the Sacred, ed. Peter Jan Margry. University of Amsterdam Press (2008). [Click here to read] {For photos of Pre's Rock, click here}
"Outsider Art, Vernacular Traditions, Trauma, and Creativity." Western Folklore, no. 2 & 3 (Winter 2008): 179-198.
"Apocalyptic and Millenarian Aspects of American UFOism." In UFO Religions, ed. Christopher Partridge, pp. 274-300. Routledge, 2003.
"The American Apocalyptic Legacy" (Chapter 2) from the book The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America. [Click here to read]
"Secular Apocalyptic Themes in the Nuclear Era" (Chapter 5) from the book The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America. [Click here to read]
"Fatalism and Apocalyptic Beliefs" (Chapter 6) from the book The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America. [Click here to read]
"Polaroids from Heaven: Photography, Folk Religion, and the Miraculous Image Tradition at a Marian Apparition Site,” Journal of American Folklore 109 (1996): 129-48.
Statement
Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1992
My interests include outsider art/art brut; visionary cultures; trauma and creativity; contemporary folklore studies, urban ethnology, and cultural theory; apocalyptic beliefs and millenarian movements; mythologies; subculture studies; popular eschatology, death, and memorialization; and vernacular artistic expression.
Professional Memberships:
- American Academy of Religion
- American Folklore Society
- Communal Studies Association
- European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
- International Communal Studies Association
- International Society for Contemporary Legend Research
- Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF)
- Western States Folklore Society
Teaching
- Apocalypse Now and Then: The End of the World in American Culture and Consciousness
- Folk Art, Visionary Art, and Material Culture
- Folklore and Popular Culture
- Folklore and Religion
- Folklore and the Supernatural
- Folklore of Subcultures
- History and Theory of Folklore Research
- Introduction to Folklore
- Visionary Experiences and Otherworldly Encounters: Traditions, Theories, and Contexts
Research
- Apocalyptic Beliefs, Millenarianism, and Popular Eschatology
- Visionary and "Outsider Art"
- Contemporary Folklore Studies, Cultural Theory, and Urban Ethnology
- Death, Mourning Rituals, Memory, and Memorialization
- Vernacular Religion
- Visionary and Apparitional Cultures
- Subculture Studies
- Pilgrimage and Spiritual Tourism
Publications
Daniel Wojcik’s book, Punk and Neo-Tribal Body Art (University Press of Mississippi) explores the shock aesthetics and oppositional style of the punk subculture, and the meanings of contemporary body modification.
Daniel Wojcik’s book, The End of the World As We Know It (New York University Press) analyzes the enduring appeal of apocalyptic and millennialist traditions in American culture.
Courses
Term | CRN | Course | Section Title | Fulfills | Syllabus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fall 2022 | 11414 | FLR 255 | Folklore & U.S. Popular Culture | English Major, Lower-Division Elective, English Minor | N/A |
Fall 2022 | 11428 | FLR 681 | History & Theory of Folklore Research | Graduate Studies | N/A |
Spring 2022 | 31452 | FLR 250 | Introduction to Folklore | IP, US, English Major, Lower-Division Elective, English Minor |
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Spring 2022 | 31459 | FLR 411 | Folklore & Religion | IC, GP, English Major, E-Media/Folklore/Culture, English Minor |
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Spring 2022 | 31467 | FLR 511 | Folklore & Religion | Graduate Studies |
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Winter 2022 | 20516 | FLR 235 | Folklore & Supernatural | A & L, English Major, Lower-Division Elective, English Minor | N/A |