Draft:Sharon Bohn Gmelch

Gmelch received a B.A. (1969), M.A. (1971), and Ph.D. (1975) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her [https://search.worldcat.org/title/11451450 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.{{Cite book |last=Bohn Gmelch |first=Sharon |editor-first1=Laurel |editor-last1=Doucette |title=Cultural Retention and Demographic Change: Studies of the Hebridean Scots in the Eastern Townships of Quebec |publisher=University of Ottawa Press |year=1980 |isbn=9781772823400 |location=Ottawa |pages=5–44 |chapter=A Social History of the Quebec Hebridean Settlements |doi=10.1353/book65430 }}

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.{{Cite web |title=Sharon Bohn Gmelch {{!}} Anthropology {{!}} Union College |url=https://www.union.edu/anthropology/faculty-staff/sharon-bohn-gmelch#:~:text=Professor%20Gmelch%20is%20a%20cultural,tourist%20guides%20in%20several%20countries. |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.union.edu |language=en}} She joined the faculty of the University of San Francisco in 2008{{Cite web |title=Sharon Gmelch {{!}} University of San Francisco |url=https://www.usfca.edu/faculty/sharon-gmelch |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.usfca.edu |language=en}} 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.

Gmelch's early work was centered on Irish Travellers, an indigenous nomadic group in Ireland. Her first book on the topic, Tinkers and Travellers,{{Cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=Sharon |title=Tinkers and Travellers |last2=Langan |first2=Pat |last3=Gmelch |first3=George |date=1979 |publisher=O'Brien |isbn=978-0-905140-66-7 |edition=2 |location=Dublin}} examined the realities of Traveller life and was illustrated with photographs by Pat Langan.{{Cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Michael |date=2024-10-16 |title='We prepare—and sometimes get lucky' |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/features/we-prepareand-sometimes-get-lucky |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}} It won Ireland's Book of Year Award in 1976.{{Cite web |last=Traveller Collection |title=Traveller Collection |url=https://travellercollection.ie/items/5eb4417bf2ff151113f3e12b |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=travellercollection.ie}} 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.{{Cite web |date= |title=Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman by Sharon Gmelch |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780393023312 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}{{Cite journal |last=Kaprow |first=Miriam Lee |date=1988 |title=Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/i227540 |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=462–63|doi=10.1525/aa.1988.90.2.02a00630 }}{{Cite journal |last=Buckley |first=Anthony D. |date=1988 |title=Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman |url= |journal=Man |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=386|doi=10.2307/2802822 |jstor=2802822 }} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Gmelch |first=Sharon Bohn |date=1982 |title=Gypsies In British Cities: Problems And Government Response |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40552981 |journal=Urban Anthropology |volume=11 |issue=3/4 |pages=347–376 |jstor=40552981 |issn=0363-2024}}

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, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X41Wkzr6fic Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller], first aired on RTE (Irish public television) in 2012.{{Cite web |title=Five Minutes With... Irish Director Liam McGrath On His Latest Documentary {{!}} The Irish Film & Television Network |url=http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4284719&tpl=archnews&force=1 |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=www.iftn.ie}}

Gmelch has also worked in the field of visual anthropology where her research was among the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska.{{Cite web |last=Conaway |first=Lisa Teas |date=2024-08-15 |title=The Gmelch's: A Legacy of Studying Sitka's Culture |url=https://sitkascience.org/the-gmelchs-a-legacy-of-studying-sitkas-culture/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=Sitka Sound Science Center |language=en-US}} 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).{{Cite web |last=WorldCat |title=Elbridge Warren Merrill : the Tlingit of Alaska, 1899-1929 {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/68941659 |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |title=E.W. Merrill Photographs - Sitka National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/sitk/learn/historyculture/ew-merrill-photographs.htm |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}} 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).{{Cite book |last=Gmelch |first=Sharon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0vzZFrmw9cC |title=The Tlingit Encounter with Photography |date=2008-10-31 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-1-934536-10-0 |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |title=A Matter of Respect {{!}} New Day Films |url=https://www.newday.com/films/a-matter-of-respect |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=www.newday.com}}

Gmelch is the editor of the collection Tourists and Tourism.{{Cite web |title=Waveland Press - Tourists and Tourism - A Reader, Third Edition, by Sharon Bohn Gmelch, Adam Kaul |url=https://www.waveland.com/browse.php?t=139 |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=www.waveland.com}} 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,{{Cite web |date=2011-05-11 |title=New Napa Valley tourism book published |url=https://napavalleyregister.com/star/news/local/business/new-napa-valley-tourism-book-published/article_3ff536d0-7bfc-11e0-80c0-001cc4c002e0.html |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Napa Valley Register |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |date=January 2012 |year=2012 |title=Gourmand Magazine |url=https://noncommon.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/gourmand-awards.pdf}}

• {{cite book |last=Gmelch |first=Sharon |title=Nan : the life of an Irish Travelling woman |publisher=Norton |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-393-02331-2 |publication-place=New York |oclc=13063019}}Reviews of Nan
• {{Cite news |last=Madigan |first=Charles |date=1986-08-14 |title=Tinker's tale of a lost Erin |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-tinkers-tale-of-a-lost/164159773/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=Chicago Tribune |pages=59}}
• {{Cite news |last=Hearn |first=Julie |date=1986-10-16 |title=The hard life on the high road... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-woking-informer-the-hard-life-on-the/164160792/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=The Working Informer |pages=2}}
• {{Cite news |last=Madigan |first=Charles |date=1986-09-03 |title=A look at the Ireland tourists never see |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-a-look-at-the-ireland-t/164161029/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=Hartford Courant |pages=27}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=Sharon |title=Gender on campus : issues for college women |last2=Stoffer |first2=Marcie Heffernan |last3=Yetzer |first3=Jody Lynn |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-585-30057-3 |publication-place=New Brunswick, N.J. |oclc=45731935}}Reviews of Gender on Campus
• {{Cite journal |last=Hufnagel |first=Glenda Lewin |date=2000 |title=Review of Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia; Shattering the Myths: Women in Academe; Gender on Campus: Issues for College Women |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316746 |journal=NWSA Journal |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=189–193 |jstor=4316746 |issn=1040-0656}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Al-Hindi |first=Karen Falconer |date=2000 |title=Review of Gender on Campus: Issues for College Women |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1515248 |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=415–417 |jstor=1515248 |issn=0004-5608}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Mary |date=May 1, 1998 |title=Gender on Campus: Issues for College Women |journal=The Booklist; Chicago |volume=94 |issue=17 |pages=1482 |via=Proquest}}
• {{cite book |last=Gmelch |first=Sharon |title=The Tlingit encounter with photography |author2=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-934536-10-0 |publication-place=[Philadelphia, PA] |oclc=236143161}}Review of The Tlingit encounter with photography
• {{Cite journal |last1=Mifflin |first1=Jeffrey |date=2012 |title=Review of The Tlingit Encounter with Photography |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/amerindiquar.36.3.0377 |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=377–396 |doi=10.5250/amerindiquar.36.3.0377 |jstor=10.5250/amerindiquar.36.3.0377 |issn=0095-182X}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=Sharon |title=The parish behind God's back : the changing culture of rural Barbados |last2=Gmelch |first2=George |publisher=Waveland Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-57766-775-9 |publication-place=Long Grove, Ill. |oclc=783142357}}Review of The Parish Behind God's Back
• {{Cite journal |last=Blouet |first=Olwyn M. |date=1998 |title=Review of The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41849942 |journal=NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids |volume=72 |issue=3/4 |pages=327–329 |jstor=41849942 |issn=1382-2373}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=Sharon |title=Irish travellers : the unsettled life |last2=Gmelch |first2=George |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-253-01461-0 |publication-place=Bloomington |oclc=1051675699}}Reviews of Irish Travellers
• {{Cite journal |last=Helleiner |first=Jane |date=2016 |title=Review of Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43912699 |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=430–431 |doi=10.1111/aman.12561 |jstor=43912699 |issn=0002-7294}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Caroline Hundley |date=2018 |title=Review of Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.131.521.0349 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=131 |issue=521 |pages=349–350 |doi=10.5406/jamerfolk.131.521.0349 |jstor=10.5406/jamerfolk.131.521.0349 |issn=0021-8715}}

• {{cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=George |title=In the field : life and work in cultural anthropology |last2=Gmelch |first2=Sharon |publisher=University of California Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-520-96421-1 |publication-place=Oakland, California |oclc=1013519276}}Review of In the field
• {{Cite journal |last=Jamieson |first=Mark |date=August 26, 2018 |title=In The Field: Life and Work in Cultural Anthropology, by George Gmelch and Sharon Bohn Gmelch |journal=Times Higher Education; London |issue=2370 |via=Proquest}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=George |title=Tasting the good life : wine tourism in the Napa Valley |last2=Gmelch |first2=Sharon |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-253-35644-4 |publication-place=Bloomington |oclc=670482474}}

• {{cite book |last1=Gmelch |first1=Sharon |title=Tourists and tourism : a reader |last2=Kaul |first2=Adam R. |publisher=Waveland Press, Inc. |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4786-3622-9 |publication-place=Long Grove, Illinois |oclc=1020482427}}

• {{Cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155764 |title=Groups that Don't Want In: Gypsies and Other Artisan, Trader, and Entertainer Minorities |author=Gmelch, Sharon Bohn |year=1986 |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=15 |pages=307–330 |doi=10.1146/annurev.an.15.100186.001515 |jstor=2155764 |via=JSTOR}}

• {{cite book |last=Gmelch |first=Sharon |title=Irish life and traditions |publisher=Syracuse University Press ; O'Brien Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-8156-2367-0 |publication-place=Syracuse, N.Y., Dublin |oclc=13903967}}

• Kaprow, Miriam Lee (1988) “[https://www.proquest.com/docview/198141189?accountid=13645&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman].” American Anthropologist 90(2): 462-63.
• Buckley, Anthony D. (1988) “Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman.” Man 23(2):386.
• Brown, Mary Ellen. (1987) “Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman.” Journal of Folklore Research 24(2): 192.
• Taylor, Lawrence. (1991) “Review of Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman.” [https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15481409 Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly] 16(1):37-38.
• Madigan, Charles (1986-08-14). "Tinker's tale of a lost Erin". Chicago Tribune. p. 59.
• Hearn, Julie (1986-10-16). "The hard life on the high road..." The Working Informer. p. 2.
• Madigan, Charles (1986-09-03). "A look at the Ireland tourists never see". Hartford Courant. p. 27.
• Hufnagel, Glenda Lewin (2000). "[https://www.proquest.com/docview/233239575?pq-origsite=primo&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals Review of Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia; Shattering the Myths: Women in Academe; Gender on Campus: Issues for College Women]". NWSA Journal. 12 (2): 189–193. ISSN 1040-0656. https://doi.org/10.1353/nwsa.2000.0036.
• Al-Hindi, Karen Falconer (2000). "[https://research.ebsco.com/c/u2orfv/viewer/pdf/27pdi4u36j?route=details Review of Gender on Campus: Issues for College Women]". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 90 (2): 415–417. ISSN 0004-5608
• Helleiner, Jane (2016). "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43912699 Review of Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life]". American Anthropologist. 118 (2): 430–431. ISSN 0002-7294
• Barber, Nelson (2014). Review of “Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley.” Journal of Wine Research 25(2): 134-36 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09571264.2014.907137

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• {{YouTube/sandbox|id=X41Wkzr6fic|title=Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller}}

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{{Draft categories|Category:Living people

Category:American women anthropologists

Category:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni

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