Jan Harold Brunvand (born 1933) is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the United States who is best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, or modern folklore. Before his work, folk tales were associated with ancient times or rural cultures; Brunvand's breakthrough was to take concepts developed in the academic study of traditional folktales and apply them to stories circulating in the modern world. The University of Utah (also The U or the U of U) was established by Mormon leader Brigham Young. ... Urban legends are a kind of folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them (see rumor). ... Folklore is the ethnographic concept of the tales, legends, or superstitions current among a particular population, a part of the oral history of a particular culture. ...

Brunvand is the author of several well-known books on the topic, starting with The Vanishing Hitchhiker in 1981. This book brought urban legends to popular attention in the United States. Follow-up works include The Choking Doberman (1986), The Mexican Pet (1988), Curses! Broiled Again! (1990), and others. He also edited the one-volume American Folklore: An Encyclopedia (1996), as well as several textbooks.

Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Brunvand received a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University in 1961. He taught at several U.S. universities before joining the University of Utah in 1966. He retired in 1996, but remains a popular speaker, writer and evangelist. Cadillac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is the county seat of Wexford County. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Indiana University may refer to: the Indiana University system Indiana University of Pennsylvania This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...