Mitchell, Gillian

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Mitchell, Gillian

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Glasgow, M.A. (honors), M.Phil.; University of Toronto, Ph.D.; Bangor University, L.L.C.M., T.H.E.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of History, University of St. Andrews, 71 South St., St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9QW, Scotland. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. University of Wales, Bangor, faculty member, beginning 2004; University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, faculty member.

WRITINGS:

The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the United States and Canada, 1945-1980, Ashgate (Burlington, VT), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of American Studies, and Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gillian Mitchell is a historian whose primary focus is American history, especially the popular music and culture of North America. In her first book, The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the United States and Canada, 1945-1980, the author provides a comparative study of the folk revival movement in Canada and the United States along with an examination of how folk music was influenced by and interacted with both countries' concepts of national identity and affinity. This thematic study incorporates history, musicology, and folklore to discuss the key themes in the folk revival, as well as concepts of national identity and cultural history. After tracing the history and the development of folklore and folk music since the nineteenth century, Mitchell goes on to describe links among folksong collectors and musicians and between folk music and national identity in the twentieth century. Of special interest is the revival of folk music in the early sixties that promoted the concepts of inclusiveness and pluralism within both the United States and Canada. The author also examines folk music's association with the grassroots political movements of the times, including the Civil Rights and student anti-war movements. The author goes on to trace how folk music began to become less popular as the 1960s wore on and how the musicians and songwriters became much more introspective in their writing and performances.