Director/Founder, Crafting Gentleness; Lecturer, University of Ulster; creative theorist, troubleshooter
United Kingdom
- Current
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- Director/Founder at Crafting Gentleness
- Lecturer, Contemporary Folk Culture at University of Ulster
- Past
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- occasional conversationalist at School of Everything
- Lecturer, Art and Visual Culture; Cultural Policy and Management; Media Studies at Sheffield Hallam University
- Lecturer, Ethnomusicology at University of Sheffield
- Lecturer, Ethnomusicology at University of California, Santa Barbara
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
- English-Irish/Spanish-English translation at Freelance Translator
- Fulbright Fellow at Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
- Music and Arts Journalist at The Galway Edge
- Education
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- University of Limerick
- National University of Ireland, Galway
- Queen's University Belfast
- Connections
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36
connections
- Industry
- Think Tanks
- Websites
Anthony McCann’s Summary
My primary focus at the moment is the development of a theoretical system based around the notion, 'a politics of gentleness'. In this work I am trying to articulate something that will do justice to the ethics of my parents and grandparents, and something that will show respect for the quieter 'ordinary ethics' that people live in everyday life all over the world. I am also developing a way of talking about power and agency where an attitude of gentleness is assumed to be the most powerful of political groundings as we always-already make a difference in the world.
Anthony McCann’s Specialties:
Context analysis; synthesis; troubleshooting; idea generation; emotional dynamics; de-escalation; theoretical overviews; social and cultural dynamics and trends.
Anthony McCann’s Experience
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Director/Founder
Crafting Gentleness
(Think Tanks industry)
January 2010 — Present (3 months)
Crafting Gentleness (www.craftinggentleness.org) is a non-profit organisation established for the following purposes:
- to promote the study and practice of gentleness in everyday life
- to contribute to the de-escalation of conflict, violence, coercion, and domination in personal, professional, and institutional practice through a series of programmes and workshops
- to promote self-care and emotional self-defense in personal, professional, and institutional practice
- to develop a body of research relating to the personal, social, and political possibilities of gentleness
- to produce materials for publication and broadcast relating to the personal, social, and political possibilities of gentleness
- to provide consultancy relating to the research and educational concerns of Crafting Gentleness -
Lecturer, Contemporary Folk Culture
University of Ulster
(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)
June 2006 — Present (3 years 10 months)
This is the job that brought me home. I am located in the School of Creative Arts, and I get to teach pretty much anything I have ever trained in: Irish Folklore and Heritage Studies (in Irish and English languages); Museum and Heritage Studies; Anthropology of Music; and Music Business. I have also taught Spanish.
My primary research areas are:
- Contemporary Folk Culture,
- Craft and Crafting in the Folk and Healing Arts
- the Politics of Gentleness
- Dynamics of Violence and Domination
- Social and Cultural Theory
- Pedagogy
- Enclosure and the Commons
- Ethnomusicology and Intellectual Property;
- Death and Immortality -
occasional conversationalist
School of Everything
(Think Tanks industry)
2007 — 2010 (3 years )
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Lecturer, Art and Visual Culture; Cultural Policy and Management; Media Studies
Sheffield Hallam University
(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)
February 2005 — June 2006 (1 year 5 months)
I started off part-time in this position and then moved to a permanent position. I taught courses in Popular Music; Alternative Media; Visual Culture; and Cultural Policy and Management. I resigned from Sheffield Hallam in June 2006.
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Lecturer, Ethnomusicology
University of Sheffield
(Educational Institution; Research industry)
September 2004 — December 2004 (4 months)
This was a four month contract. I taught courses in Music in Everyday Life; Music and Culture; and Ethnomusicology. I also supervised postgraduate research students.
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Lecturer, Ethnomusicology
University of California, Santa Barbara
(Educational Institution; Research industry)
January 2004 — June 2004 (6 months)
This was my first full-time job, and a nice job it was, too. A five month contract at a university that nestles by the beach. Nice work if you can get it :) I taught courses in Music and Copyright; the Anthropology of Irish Traditional Music; Social Theory and Ethnomusicology; and World Music.
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
(Non-Profit; Museums and Institutions industry)
February 2002 — February 2003 (1 year 1 month)
. This twelve-month period allowed me to consolidate previous practical experience in cultural policy and to acquire a deeper level of theoretical expertise in other areas such as Museum Studies, Public Folklore, and Applied Ethnomusicology, while still being accountable to the rigours of everyday practice. In March, 2002, I convened a Critical Policy Group at the Center. This was a reading group established to foster greater integration of professional Center concerns with theoretical development through close reading of key anthropological, public folklore, and cultural policy texts. During the Summer of 2002 I acted as an advisors to the Emory Ph.D. Fellows in Cultural Policy. Their remit was to undertake a detailed theoretical and ethnographic analysis of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, produced within the Center.
Throughout the year I worked on the Cultural Policy Team of the CFCH, which involved analysis and redrafting of the UNESCO Draft Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This has since been ratified as the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Dr. Richard Kurin, as head of this team, served in an independent advisory capacity to the U.S. State Department in matters of cultural concern with regard to UNESCO. The Critical Policy Group and the Cultural Policy Team engaged me in animated and personally-challenging discussion on issues of civil society, discourses of protection and development, festivalisation, exhibition, education, social dynamics of traditional culture, public folklore, and exhibitions, among other things. -
English-Irish/Spanish-English translation
Freelance Translator
(Privately Held; Translation and Localization industry)
September 1997 — February 2002 (4 years 6 months)
Freelance Translator, English-Irish/Spanish-English. Contracts included DIALANG European Diagnostic Language Testing programme, MIDAS-Ireland, and Health Promotion Unit of the Dept. of Health and Children (Rep. of Ireland).
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Fulbright Fellow
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
(Non-Profit; Museums and Institutions industry)
September 1998 — July 1999 (11 months)
In 1998-99 I undertook a one year Fulbright Scholarship at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH). During this time I was a key contributor to the conceptual development of the 1999 UNESCO/Smithsonian World Conference, "A Global Assessment of the 1989 UNESCO Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore: Local Empowerment and International Cooperation", held in Washington D.C.. I was also employed as assistant co-ordinator of the conference, and for one month acted as the sole project co-ordinator. This provided me with first-hand experience of an intensive cultural policy environment. As a conference team we sought to make the conference more inclusive than standard UNESCO gatherings of government officials and scholars. The majority of the 37 invited international participants were invited as expert traditional practitioners and community cultural advocates. I drafted working documents, co-ordinated flight and accommodation details for all participants, supervised three interns, and presented the Smithsonian analysis of the 1989 UNESCO Recommendation to the plenary session of the conference.
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Music and Arts Journalist
The Galway Edge
(Media Production industry)
April 1996 — July 1997 (1 year 4 months)
I worked as a music journalist while I was living in Galway. I specialised in Irish traditional music, but wrote more generally as well. I also freelanced for the Irish Times, Hot Press magazine, and Living Tradition magazine at the time. It was this work that led me to consider the academic field of ethnomusicology.
Anthony McCann’s Education
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University of Limerick
Ph.D. , Ethnomusicology and Business , 1997 — 2002
In my doctoral dissertation, Beyond the Commons: The Expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation, the Elimination of Uncertainty, and the Politics of Enclosure, I undertook a theoretical analysis of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) during the period 1995-2000. In the space of five years the organization went from being one of the most hated in Ireland to being one of the most accepted, with full government support and full legal sanction for their monopoly operations. I was interested in how this public relations miracle had been achieved.
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National University of Ireland, Galway
M.Phil. , Interdisciplinary Irish Studies , 1994 — 1997
This was a course that covered history, literature, and the Irish language. It opened a lot of doors for me, intellectually and personally.
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Queen's University Belfast
BA Joint Honours , Celtic Studies and Spanish , 1990 — 1994
Additional Information
Anthony McCann’s Websites:
Anthony McCann’s Interests:
Personal and political dynamics of enclosure (unhelpful dynamics in relationships), The politics of gentleness (helpful dynamics in relationships), Critical Legal Studies/Anthropology of Law: Music, copyright, and intellectual property, Cultural Policy and Heritage Studies, Craft and Crafting in the Folk and Healing Arts,
Anthony McCann’s Groups:
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UK & Eire Business Network Group -
Northern Ireland Business Network -
The Ethos Roundtable -
Irish Angel Investment - HBAN
Anthony McCann’s Honors:
Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution, 2003-2006
Smithsonian Institution Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2002-2003.
Tyrone Guthrie Centre Writer’s Bursary, June 2001.
Charles Seeger Prize of the Society for Ethnomusicology, 1999.
Government of Ireland Scholarship, 1999-2000.
United States Fulbright Fellowship, 1998-1999.
Royal Irish Academy/British Academy Research Bursary (Oxford University), 1998.
Erasmus Postgraduate Exchange, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, September - December 1996.
Department of Education for Northern Ireland Postgraduate Exchange Scholarship, 1994-1996.
Queen's University Arts Foundation Scholarship, 1990-1994.
Queen's University Reid-Harwood Modern Languages Scholarship, 1990-1994.
