![Dr Thomas McKean Dr Thomas McKean](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/enl111/mckean.jpg)
PhD, University of Edinburgh (1993); AB, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (1983)
Lecturer
- About
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- Email Address
- t.a.mckean@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 273882
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272996
- Office Address
The Elphinstone Institute MacRobert Building King's College Aberdeen AB24 5UA
- School/Department
- School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture
Biography
I am a folklorist specializing in Scots and Gaelic song, along with custom and belief, community craft traditions and their relevance in today's world, and fieldwork methodology. Of particular interest is the relationship of traditional practices to the individual, the role of creativity in tradition, and how traditional skills can help build individual and community resilience in challenging times.
As part of the James Madison Carpenter Project team, I have been working with cylinder and disc recordings of North-East singers made between 1929 and 1935, leading towards publication of a critical edition of the collection. The project has been funded by the British Academy and the National Endowment for the Humanities under the auspices of the American Folklore Society, and in association with the Library of Congress, Washington, DC (www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/carpenter).
Ongoing research with boatbuilding traditions looks at the idea of 'knowing by doing': how people young and old learn embodied craft skills by imitation, proximity, and osmosis, and how these skills enhance people's cultural confidence and self esteem.
My postgraduate teaching includes Custom and Belief, Scots and Gaelic Song, along with Fieldwork and Archiving methodology. I have organized a number of conferences, including the 1999 and 2007 Kommission für Volksdichtung ballad conference.
In 1993, I established the North East Folklore Archive at Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire as part of my work as Traditional Music Resident for Banff and Buchan District Council (now Aberdeeenshire), 1993-1996. The archive has continued to develop under the direction of Gavin Sutherland and much of my fieldwork material is now available on the web at the Banff and Buchan Collection.
- Research
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Current Research
Current research includes:
- Scotland's fire festivals, particularly the burning of the Clavie in Burghead, Moray;
- Creativity within traditional forms
- Craft traditions and knowing by doing
- New England vernacular architecture;
- The effects of field collection in the North-East;
- Macaronic song traditions;
- The relationship of memory and song in west coast Gaelic communities.
- Publications
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Traditional Song and Remembered Community in Scotland
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsIntroduction: The Flowering Thorn, International Ballad Studies
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Forewords and Postscripts- [ONLINE] https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46nrm0.3
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46nrm0.3
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies
Utah State University Press, Logan. 394 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksTradition as Communication
Oral Tradition, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 49-50Contributions to Journals: ArticlesReview: Highland Journeys by James Hogg
Studia Ethnologica PragensiaContributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesEquating Traditional Singers' Terms with Melodic Adaptation
Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, vol. 47, no. 1-2, pp. 91-97Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Fieldwork Legacy of James Macpherson
Contributions to Conferences: Oral Presentations'In a Savage State' or 'Original Purity': The Fieldwork Legacy of James Macpherson
Journal of American Folklore, vol. 114, no. 454, pp. 447-463Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/542050
A Melodic Vocabulary for Ballad Singing in North East Scotland
Balada şi Studiile despra Baladă la Cumpăna dintre Secole / Ballad and Ballad Studies at the Turn of the Century. Constantinescu, N. (ed.). Editura Deliana, pp. 150-155Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)A Melodic Vocabulary for Ballad Singing in North-East Scotland
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsSatire and the Exchange of Song in an Isle of Skye Community
Northeast Folklore: Essays in Honor of Edward D. Ives. MacDougall, P., Taylor, D. (eds.). University of Maine Press and Maine Folklife Center, pp. 113-136Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)The Making of Child 306
in Bridging the Cultural Divide: Our Common Ballad Heritage. Georg Olms Verlag, pp. 273-290Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)'You Make Me Dizzy Miss Lizzie': Elizabeth Stewart’s Up-tempo Ballads
Northern Scotland, pp. 103-15Contributions to Journals: ArticlesLa collecte du chants gaélique en Ecosse
La Bretagne et la littérature orale en Europe. Postic, F. (ed.). Centre de Recherche Bretonne et CeltiqueChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersCeltic music and the growth of the Feis movement in the Scottish Highlands
Western Folklore, vol. 57, pp. 245-259Contributions to Journals: ArticlesGordon Easton and “The Beggarman” (Child 279/280)
Ballads into Books: The Legacies of Francis James Child. Cheesman, T., Rieuwerts, S. (eds.). Peter Lang, pp. 237-248Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Hebridean Songmaker: Iain Macneacail of the Isle of Skye
Polygon, EdinburghBooks and Reports: BooksGordon Easton’s “The Friendly Ploughing Match at Tyrie”: A Song of Regional, Local and National Identity
Visions and Identities. Tungulist, pp. 101-113, 13 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)A Gaelic Songmaker's Response to an English-Speaking Nation
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsA Gaelic Songmaker's Response to an English-Speaking Nation
Oral Tradition, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 3Contributions to Journals: Articles