John Holmes McDowell
Encyclopedia
John Holmes McDowell is a Professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington
. He also serves as Director of the Minority Languages and Cultures of Latin America Project at Indiana University. Broadly speaking his work is centered on performance and communication as well as the interplay of creativity and tradition. Geographically most of his fieldwork has been in Mexico
, Colombia
, Cuba
, Ecuador
, and Ghana
. His interests include Speech play and verbal art; the corrido
of Greater Mexico; music, myth, and cosmology in the Andes; commemoration; folklorization; ethnopoetics
; Latin America
; the United States
.
in Pennsylvania in 1969 with a B.A. in Music. He received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin
where he majored in Folklore and minored in English Literature and Linguistics. His dissertation was titled The Speech Play and Verbal Art of Chicano Children: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study.
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
. He also serves as Director of the Minority Languages and Cultures of Latin America Project at Indiana University. Broadly speaking his work is centered on performance and communication as well as the interplay of creativity and tradition. Geographically most of his fieldwork has been in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, and Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. His interests include Speech play and verbal art; the corrido
Corrido
The corrido is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad, of Mexico. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for peasants, and other socially important information. It is still a popular form today, and was widely popular during the Mexican Revolution and Nicaraguan...
of Greater Mexico; music, myth, and cosmology in the Andes; commemoration; folklorization; ethnopoetics
Ethnopoetics
Ethnopoetics is a poetic movement and subfield in linguistics, and anthropology. It was coined as a term by Jerome Rothenberg in collaboration with George Quasha in 1968, when Quasha asked Rothenberg to create a term using 'ethnos' and 'poetics' on the model of 'ethnomusicology' for inclusion in...
; Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
; the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Education
He graduated from Swarthmore CollegeSwarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
in Pennsylvania in 1969 with a B.A. in Music. He received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
where he majored in Folklore and minored in English Literature and Linguistics. His dissertation was titled The Speech Play and Verbal Art of Chicano Children: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study.
Academic writing
He is the author of four books: Children’s Riddling (1979), Sayings of the Ancestors: The Spiritual Life of the Sibundoy Indians (1989) and “So Wise Were Our Elders”: Mythic Narratives of the Kamsá (1994), based on fieldwork with an indigenous community in Colombia, Poetry and Violence: The Ballad Tradition of Mexico’s Costa Chica (2000), a study of the ballad tradition in southern coastal Mexico. He was also editor or co-editor of the following books or volumes: Andean Musics. Andean Studies Occasional Papers. V.3 Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (1987), Andean Cosmologies through Time: Persistence and Emergence (1992), Stith Thompson’s A Folklorist’s Progress: Reflections of a Scholar’s Life (1996), and Dancing the Ancestors: Carnival in South America (2001). Additionally he has published more than 30 articles on subjects ranging from the Mexican corrido to Children’s folklore.Other academic work
He has been involved with video documentaries and website productions related to his scholarship. With his wife Patricia Glushko he produced video documentaries “Que me troven un corrido” and “Brass Bands of Guerrero” addressing the music of Mexico. He also runs a website on student folklore at Indiana University. He served as editor for the Journal of Folklore Research from 1986–1992, editor of Special Publications of the Folklore Institute from 1990–1995 and 1999–2009, and the online Journal of Folklore Research Reviews from 2006–present.Major prizes and awards
- Indiana University New Frontiers in the Humanities for "Pioneer Village and Virtual Outdoor Museum Website" (2006)
- Indiana University College Arts and Humanities Institute for "Inti Raymi: Runa Festival of Cleansing and Renewal" (2006)
- Named a Fellow of the American Folklore Society (2004)
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Education Division for "Tales On-Line: An Electronic Database of Folk Narrative" (2001)
- Indiana University Intercampus Research Fund for "Hungarian-American Consciousness" (2001)
- Summer Faculty Fellowship, Indiana University (1997)
- Named John Simon Guggenheim Fellow for "Poetry and Violence on Mexico's Costa Chica" (1994)
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Interpretive Research for "Hispanic Folk Poetry in Performance" (1988–90)
- Fulbright Lectureship in Ghana, West Africa (1987–1988)
- Chicago Folklore Prize for Children's Riddling (1978–79)
- Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship (Colombia) (1979)