Dr. Micah Ling is associate director of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program (MTAP). As a folklorist in her role at MTAP, she liaises with artist and community collaborators, provides networking opportunities, conducts ethnographic fieldwork around the state to document community cultural practices and identify potential program participants, and stewards MTAP’s archival and object collections, which are housed at the Michigan State University Museum. She collaborates regularly with arts and cultural organizations and culture workers around the state and region, such as the Midwest Folklorists and Cultural Workers Alliance and the American Folklore Society. She has experience working in a variety of museum and archives contexts, including the MSU Museum, the Archives of Traditional Music, and the Sage Historic Dress Collection at Indiana University. As affiliate faculty in MSU’s Arts and Culture Management and Museum Studies Program, Ling brings expertise in museum collections management and care, curation, heritage studies, and community-engaged public folklore work.

Ling holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University with a concentration in public practice, and a B.A. in art history and visual culture/arts and humanities from MSU with a minor in museum studies. Her research focuses on the intersection of music and material culture. With a special focus on dress in the American old-time and Americana music scenes, she explores material culture as a vehicle for belonging, performing nostalgia, and expressing subcultural identity. A folk musician herself, she advises on programming for the Wheatland Music Organization and the Robin Theatre.

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