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Draft:Sharon Bohn Gmelch

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  • Comment: Given the multiple reviews of multiple works, I think Gmelch meets WP:AUTHOR. The reviews are not considered primary sources. DaffodilOcean (talk) 17:25, 27 January 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: I have added in a few reviews of her work DaffodilOcean (talk) 17:32, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Sharon Bohn Gmelch
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
ThesisThe emergence and persistence of an ethnic group : the Irish "travellers" (1974)

Sharon Bohn Gmelch is an American anthropologist best known for her research on Irish Travellers, tourism, and visual anthropology. She is an emeritus professor of anthropology at Union College and the University of San Francisco.

Education and career

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Gmelch received a B.A. (1969), M.A. (1971), and Ph.D. (1975) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Following her Ph.D. she worked at National Museum of Man in Canada before becoming an associate professor at Union College in 1981, where she was promoted to full professor in 1991. From 2004 until 2008 she held the position of the Roger Thayer Stone chair of the Anthropology Department at Union College. In 2008 she moved to the University of San Francisco where she was a full professor.[1]

Research

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Gmelch's early work was centered on Irish Travellers, an indigenous nomadic group in Ireland. Her first book on the topic, Tinkers and Travellers,[2] examined the realities of Traveller life and was illustrated with photographs by Pat Langan.[3] It won Ireland's Book of Year Award in 1976.[4] In 1986 she published a biography of a Travelling woman in Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman. Her subsequent work in this area was described in two books: In the Field: Life and Work in Anthropology and Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life.

Gmelch has also worked in the field of visual anthropology where her research was among the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska.[5]

Visual Anthropology

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First was an analysis of the work of photographer Elbridge W. Merrill who documented life in Sitka, Alaska between 1899-1929, during a period of rapid change (e.g., the government-mandated "last potlatch" of 1904; boarding school life).[6][7] This research led to an historical study of all early photography of the Tlingit. In The Tlingit Encounter with Photography (University of Pennsylvania Museum Press, 2008).[8] During this period, Gmelch also co-produced a documentary film with filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein on the cultural revitalization of Sitka's Tlingit.  A Matter of Respect: Alaska Natives Balance the Past and Present (New Day Films, 1992) explored the Tlingits' efforts to revive their language, arts, and subsistence practices and pass them on to the younger generation. The film won several awards including a Silver Apple from the National Educational Film and Video Festival, was screened at the Margaret Mead Film Festival, and aired on PBS.[9]

Tourism

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Gmelch is the editor of the collection Tourists and Tourism.[10] She has also done research on wine tourism in the Napa Valley with George Gmelch.  In 2011, they published Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley (Indiana) which examined the history and impact of tourism in the Napa Valley, the wine "tasting" experience,[11] and the working lives of wine and tourism workers, from vineyard field workers and winemaker to tasting room designer, tour guides and others. It won the 2012 Gourmand International Award for the best book on wine tourism.[12]

Cultural anthropology field schools

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During her more than forty years of teaching, Gmelch directed and co-directed sixteen semester-length anthropology field schools in Barbados (1983–2000),[13] Tasmania (2004-10), and Tanzania (2012) along with conventional terms abroad in Japan (1989, 1996) and Vietnam (2002); and ten summer field schools in Argentina (2007)[citation needed] and Alaska (2006, 2012-24).[5]  She and George Gmelch have written extensively about the positive impacts of field schools and cultural immersion on students.[14]

Selected publications

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  • Gmelch, Sharon (1986). Nan : the life of an Irish Travelling woman. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02331-2. OCLC 13063019.[15]
  • Gmelch, Sharon; Stoffer, Marcie Heffernan; Yetzer, Jody Lynn (1998). Gender on campus : issues for college women. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-585-30057-3. OCLC 45731935.[16]
  • Gmelch, Sharon; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2008). The Tlingit encounter with photography. [Philadelphia, PA]: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. ISBN 978-1-934536-10-0. OCLC 236143161.[17]
  • Gmelch, Sharon; Gmelch, George (2012). The parish behind God's back : the changing culture of rural Barbados. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press. ISBN 978-1-57766-775-9. OCLC 783142357.[18]
  • Gmelch, Sharon; Gmelch, George (2014). Irish travellers : the unsettled life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01461-0. OCLC 1051675699.[19]
  • Gmelch, George; Gmelch, Sharon (2011). Tasting the good life : wine tourism in the Napa Valley. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35644-4. OCLC 670482474.

Personal life

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She is married to fellow cultural anthropologist, and frequent collaborator, George Gmelch.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ "Sharon Bohn Gmelch" (PDF). University of San Francisco.
  2. ^ Gmelch, Sharon; Langan, Pat; Gmelch, George (1979). Tinkers and Travellers (2 ed.). Dublin: O'Brien. ISBN 978-0-905140-66-7.
  3. ^ O'Brien, Michael (2024-10-16). "'We prepare—and sometimes get lucky'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  4. ^ Traveller Collection. "Traveller Collection". travellercollection.ie. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  5. ^ a b Conaway, Lisa Teas (2024-08-15). "The Gmelch's: A Legacy of Studying Sitka's Culture". Sitka Sound Science Center. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  6. ^ WorldCat. "Elbridge Warren Merrill : the Tlingit of Alaska, 1899-1929 | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  7. ^ "E.W. Merrill Photographs - Sitka National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  8. ^ Gmelch, Sharon (2008-10-31). The Tlingit Encounter with Photography. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-934536-10-0.
  9. ^ "A Matter of Respect | New Day Films". www.newday.com. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  10. ^ "Waveland Press - Tourists and Tourism - A Reader, Third Edition, by Sharon Bohn Gmelch, Adam Kaul". www.waveland.com. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  11. ^ "New Napa Valley tourism book published". The Napa Valley Register. 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  12. ^ "Gourmand Magazine" (PDF). January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. ^ Bolles, A Lynn (September 2000). "Coming from the Caribbean: Knowledge production and cultural transformation". American Anthropologist; Oxford. 102 (3): 611–614 – via Proquest.
  14. ^ University of California Press. "In the Field by George Gmelch, Sharon Gmelch - Paper". University of California Press. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  15. ^ Reviews of Nan
  16. ^ Reviews of Gender on Campus
  17. ^ Review of The Tlingit encounter with photography
  18. ^ Review of The Parish Behind God's Back
  19. ^ Reviews of Irish Travellers
  20. ^ Review of In the field
    • Jamieson, Mark (August 26, 2018). "In The Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology, by George Gmelch and Sharon Bohn Gmelch". Times Higher Education; London (2370) – via Proquest.
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