Dr Thomas McKean

Dr Thomas McKean

PhD, University of Edinburgh (1993); AB, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (1983)

Lecturer

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t.a.mckean@abdn.ac.uk

+44 (0)1224 273882

+44 (0)1224 272996

The Elphinstone Institute MacRobert Building King's College Aberdeen AB24 5UA

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

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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Dr Thomas McKean

Biography

Current Research

Whose Meaning Is It Anyway?

MULTI-LAYERED COMMUNICATION AND FUNCTION IN SCOTTISH TRAVELLER CANT

The Sound of Silence—Dementia, Language Loss, and Being Heard

Nawken Culture at the Elphinstone Institute: Our Work with the Traveller Community

When old sea shanties go viral we know that tradition matters

Hip-Hop Ballads Made Anew on the Streets of Aberdeen

Street Music and Narrative Traditions

That Night in Caperquin: The Agency of Memory in 'The Lass of Roch Royal'

Willie Mathieson and the Primary Audience for Traditional Song

Hip-Hop Ballads Made Anew on the Streets of Aberdeen

Building Boats, Building Social Resilience

Oil Wives

Old Hands + New Hands + Healthy Minds = Happy Men

Singing Families of Aberdeenshire: Context, Structure and Meaning

Born in a Bow Tent: An Ambiguous Symbol of Scottish Traveller Identity

Stories beyond the Text: Contextualizing Narratives and 'The Jolly Beggar'

Integrating Textures of Life and Song: Constructing Tradition through Narrated Association

Stories beyond the Text

Studimi i Folklorit në Kontekst: Baladat, Barkat dhe Festivalet e Zjarrit në Veri të Skocisë

Songs of People on the Move

Stewardship and Evolving Fidelity in a Scottish Fire Festival

Review of Tales from Highland Perthshire Collected by Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray.

The Dialect Conundrum in Transcribing Early Sound Recordings

Le souvenir des cultures disparues dans l’Écosse gaélique: tradition orale, James Macpherson et la nature de la mémoire

David Atkinson, The English Traditional Ballad: Theory, Method, and Practice

Gettin the Wey o a Sang: Creativity in Ballad Singing

Tradition and Modernity: Gaelic Bards in the Twentieth Century

The Stewarts of Fetterangus and Literate Oral Tradition

Introduction: The Flowering Thorn, International Ballad Studies

The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies

Equating Traditional Singers' Terms with Melodic Adaptation

'In a Savage State' or 'Original Purity': The Fieldwork Legacy of James Macpherson

A Melodic Vocabulary for Ballad Singing in North East Scotland

Satire and the Exchange of Song in an Isle of Skye Community

The Making of Child 306

'You Make Me Dizzy Miss Lizzie': Elizabeth Stewart’s Up-tempo Ballads

Celtic music and the growth of the Feis movement in the Scottish Highlands

Gordon Easton and “The Beggarman” (Child 279/280)

Gordon Easton’s “The Friendly Ploughing Match at Tyrie”: A Song of Regional, Local and National Identity

A Gaelic Songmaker's Response to an English-Speaking Nation

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