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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 cultural anthropologist best known for her research on Irish Travellers, tourism, and visual anthropology. She is married to fellow cultural anthropologist George Gmelch. 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. Her dissertation focused on inter-ethnic relations between the nomadic Irish Traveller community and the settled Irish society. Following her Ph.D. she was affiliated with the University of Bristol, England and subsequently the Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies at the National Museum of Man.[1]

She began teaching at Union College in 1976 where she was a professor of anthropology and became the college’s first director of Women’s Studies.[2] She joined the faculty of the University of San Francisco in 2008[3] and together with George Gmelch established and directed its Anthropology program. She has held visiting appointments at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (1989); New Mexico State University (1988); and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (2000-01). She retired from Union College and the University of San Francisco in 2025 and is currently professor emerita at both.

Research

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Irish Travellers and Ethnicity

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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,[4] examined the realities of Traveller life and was illustrated with photographs by Pat Langan.[5] It won Ireland's Book of Year Award in 1976.[6] This was followed by further research over many years.  A second book on Travellers, the biography of a Travelling woman, Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman, was published by W.W. Norton in 1986.[7][8][9] In 1981 she and George Gmelch were employed by the British Department of the Environment to examine the lives of Irish Travellers and Roma in the UK.[10]

When she and George Gmelch returned to Ireland in 2011 to study how Travellers had changed in the 40 years since their first research, they were shadowed by an Irish documentary film crew. The two-part series, Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller, first aired on RTE (Irish public television) in 2012.[11][12]

Visual Anthropology

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Gmelch has also worked in the field of visual anthropology where her research was among the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska.[13] 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).[14][15] 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).[16] 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.[17]

Tourism

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Gmelch is the editor of the collection Tourists and Tourism.[18] 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,[19] 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.[20]

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.[21]
  • 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.[22]
  • 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.[23]
  • 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.[24]
  • Gmelch, Sharon; Gmelch, George (2014). Irish travellers : the unsettled life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01461-0. OCLC 1051675699.[25]
  • Gmelch, George; Gmelch, Sharon (2018). In the field : life and work in cultural anthropology. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-96421-1. OCLC 1013519276.[26]
  • 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.

Reviews of work

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References

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  1. ^ Bohn Gmelch, Sharon (1980). "A Social History of the Quebec Hebridean Settlements". Cultural Retention and Demographic Change: Studies of the Hebridean Scots in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. pp. 5–44. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book65430. ISBN 9781772823400. {{cite book}}: Check |doi= value (help); External link in |doi= (help)
  2. ^ "Sharon Bohn Gmelch | Anthropology | Union College". www.union.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  3. ^ "Sharon Gmelch | University of San Francisco". www.usfca.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  4. ^ Gmelch, Sharon; Langan, Pat; Gmelch, George (1979). Tinkers and Travellers (2 ed.). Dublin: O'Brien. ISBN 978-0-905140-66-7.
  5. ^ O'Brien, Michael (2024-10-16). "'We prepare—and sometimes get lucky'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  6. ^ Traveller Collection. "Traveller Collection". travellercollection.ie. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  7. ^ "Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman by Sharon Gmelch". www.publishersweekly.com. Invalid date. Retrieved 2025-03-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Kaprow, Miriam Lee (1988). "Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman". American Anthropologist. 90 (2): 462–63.
  9. ^ Buckley, Anthony D. (1988). [1988 "Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman"]. Man. 23 (2): 386. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help)
  10. ^ Gmelch, Sharon Bohn (1982). "Gypsies In British Cities: Problems And Government Response". Urban Anthropology. 11 (3/4): 347–376. ISSN 0363-2024.
  11. ^ Kelleher, Aoife; Bartley, Kim; McGrath, Liam (2012-04-02), Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller (Documentary), Michael Collins, Scratch Films, Scratch Films, retrieved 2025-03-07
  12. ^ "Five Minutes With... Irish Director Liam McGrath On His Latest Documentary | The Irish Film & Television Network". www.iftn.ie. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  13. ^ Conaway, Lisa Teas (2024-08-15). "The Gmelch's: A Legacy of Studying Sitka's Culture". Sitka Sound Science Center. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  14. ^ WorldCat. "Elbridge Warren Merrill : the Tlingit of Alaska, 1899-1929 | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  15. ^ "E.W. Merrill Photographs - Sitka National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  16. ^ Gmelch, Sharon (2008-10-31). The Tlingit Encounter with Photography. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-934536-10-0.
  17. ^ "A Matter of Respect | New Day Films". www.newday.com. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  18. ^ "Waveland Press - Tourists and Tourism - A Reader, Third Edition, by Sharon Bohn Gmelch, Adam Kaul". www.waveland.com. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  19. ^ "New Napa Valley tourism book published". The Napa Valley Register. 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  20. ^ "Gourmand Magazine" (PDF). January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  21. ^ Reviews of Nan
  22. ^ Reviews of Gender on Campus
  23. ^ Review of The Tlingit encounter with photography
  24. ^ Review of The Parish Behind God's Back
  25. ^ Reviews of Irish Travellers
  26. ^ 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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