Jay Mechling is Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. He earned his B.A. (magna cum laude, 1967) in American Studies at Stetson University (DeLand, Florida), was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowships for 1967-68, and earned his graduate degrees (1968, 1971) in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the UCD faculty in 1971 and was a fellow of the National Humanities Institute at Yale University in 1975-76. He served as a member of the National Council of the American Studies Association from 1974 to 1981, first as chair of the ASA Bibliography Committee and then as member elected at-large. He edited the annual bibliography issue of the American Quarterly from 1974 through 1979, and was editor of Western Folklore (quarterly journal of the California Folklore Society) from 1984 through 1988. He directed the American Studies Program at UCD from 1978 to 1988. He directed the Teaching Resources Center at UCD from 1986 to 1989. He was elected president of the California Folklore Society in 1991 and that same year received a national award as one of the ten outstanding freshman advocates in the nation. He was appointed to the California Council for the Humanities in 1992 and became its chair in early 1994. He received the UCD Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993 and the Mary Turpie Award from the American Studies Association in 1998, for his outstanding achievements in teaching and curricular development at the local, regional, and national levels. Elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society in 1998, he was the Project Director for a grant given by the NEH to UCD in 2001 for the creation of a Pacific Regional Humanities Center. He was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Year (2002) by Stetson University.

Mechling has published over eighty essays and articles in books, journals. His books include American Wildlife in Symbol and Story (co-editor;U. of Tenn Press, 1987) and On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth (U. of Chicago Press 2001). He is one of the three senior editors for the 4-volume Encyclopedia of American Studies (Grolier, 2001)