Lawless, Elaine J.: - Elaine Lawless is Curators' Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies and also serves as Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She is also the current President of the American Folklore Society. Her works include Troubling Violence (with M. Heather Carver), God's Peculiar People, a study of Pentecostals in Indiana, and Handmaidens of the Lord.