Areas of study and teaching:  Folklore Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, Religious Studies, women's  literature and verbal art, and women's narrative; human rights, social justice, violence against women.

Elaine Lawless is the author of ten books, as well as many scholarly articles, is the co-producer (with Elizabeth Peterson) of the documentary film on Pentecostalism, "Joy Unspeakable," and "Taking Pinhook," with Todd Lawrence, 2014.  Her latest three books are: The Liberation of Winifred Bryan Horner: Writer, Teacher, and Women’s Advocate (Indiana Univ Pr, 2018); When They Blew the Levee: Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri (Miss Univ Pr, 2018); Reciprocal Ethnography and the Power of Women’s Narratives (Indiana Univ Pr, 2019).

During her time in the English Department, Lawless received the Faculty Alumni Award, the Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Gold Chalk Award (for graduate instruction) and a Purple Chalk Award (for undergraduate instruction), and the Chancellor's Award for Research. In 2002, she was named a Curators' Professor by the MU Board of Curators; in 2004, she was named MU Alumni Distinguished Professor.  In 2003, she founded and is the producer of the Troubling Violence Performance Project, with Professor Heather Carver (director), MU Theatre Department.  From 2005-2008, Dr. Lawless served as the Director of the Center for Arts and Humanities, Conley House, on the MU campus.  She served as President of the American Folklore Society (2007-2010).  Lawless served as the Nan Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina and Duke University for 2011-12, where she taught in residence. Currently, she teaches for the Honors College.