Graduate Student, Celtic Languages and Literatures
About
I received my BA in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard in 2007, after taking two years off to study at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye, where I earned a Diploma of Higher Education in Gaelic Language and Culture in 2006. While living in Scotland, I was lucky to have many opportunities to participate in modern Gaelic culture; under the close supervision of native tradition-bearers, I published Gaelic poetry in the Highlands’ literary magazine, Northwords Now, wrote and illustrated a children’s book, and recorded three Gaelic songs on a small-label CD. I sang in Gaelic at the annual Sabhal Mòr Ostaig lecture at the Scottish Parliament, made bilingual introductions at concerts at Skye’s Fèis an Eilein, and sang for my supper in the local pub. I returned to the US in 2006, and spent my final year as a Harvard undergraduate writing my senior thesis on an untranslated, unannotated collection of waulking songs made by K. C. Craig on the island of South Uist in the 1940s, Òrain Luaidh Màiri nighean Alasdair. My thesis received a Thomas T. Hoopes Prize from Harvard College and the Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize in Folklore and Mythology.
While my current primary research interest is Scottish Gaelic folklore, I also have a deep and abiding interest in minority language rights (especially, but not exclusively, as regards the modern Celtic languages), music and ethnomusicology, customary and material folklore (particularly traditional fiber preparation and textile production), and second language pedagogy. As a Teaching Fellow in Folklore and Mythology, I received a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. I am the New England regional representative for An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach, and review books on Scottish Gaelic topics for the journal Language Policy. I have presented papers at the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, the California Celtic Conference, the Harvard Folklore and Mythology Symposium, Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig, and other conferences; my article on gender in the waulking songs of Màiri nighean Alasdair will appear in the proceedings of Child’s Children: Ballad Studies and Its Legacies.
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