Julie Henigan is from Springfield, Missouri, the largest city in the Ozarks, an upland area located mainly in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Her mother played classical violin and piano and her father was an omnivorous listener. Hence, she grew up listening to many different kinds of music; and, although Early Music is another of her passions, it was traditional American, British, and Irish music to which, as a performer, she was most drawn. This interest led her not only to teach herself guitar, banjo, dulcimer, and Irish-style fiddle, but also to seek out and learn from traditional singers and musicians, and eventually to pursue a Master's degree in folklore, which she obtained from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Most of her scholarly work has focused on traditional Irish song and on southern American music. She has played music professionally for a number of years, though she has usually combined performing with her work as a student, an archivist, a free-lance oral historian and folklorist, writer, substitute teacher, and lecturer. Her oral history projects have included “Medicine in the Ozarks” and the United Hebrew Congregations Oral History Project, and she has lectured on traditional Irish and American music at conferences and for private organizations in several countries, including the Willie Clancy Summer School, in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. She has spent a considerable amount of time in both England and Ireland, studying, working, and touring.
She recently completed a Ph.D. in English Literature and Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, writing a dissertation entitled "Literacy and Orality in Eighteenth-Century Irish Song." Her publications include articles in Ulster Folklife, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (edited by Fintan Vallely), The Old-Time Herald, The North Carolina Folklore Journal, and New Hibernia Review. Several of her folklore-related articles have been reprinted on the
Musical Traditions website.
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION:
Notre Dame University: Fall, 1999-2009. Ph.D. "with distinction" in English Literature, May 2009.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 1984-86. M.A. in Folklore, May, 1989. Thesis: "Sean-nós in America: A Study of Two Singers."
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri: 1973-77. B.A. in English Literature and French.
HONORS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS:
Fellowship, English Department/Keough Institute for Irish Studies, Notre Dame University,
1999-2006.
Travel Grant from the British Council for research at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
(Northern Ireland) on Irish and American folklore, June, 1992.
Graduate Fellowship, Folklore Department, University of Pennsylvania, 1988.
Cratis D. Williams Award for graduate paper in folklore, 1986.
Limited Service Assistantship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984-86.
Youthgrant in the Humanities (National Endowment for the Humanities) for research on Irish traditional song, summer, 1979.
TEACHING:
Graduate Instructor, University of Notre Dame, Spring, 2003. Created and taught "Irish Traditional Music" (300-level) for Irish Studies Program/Anthropology.
Teaching Assistant, Irish Studies Program, University of Notre Dame, Spring, 2002, for 300-level course in Irish military history; led weekly discussion sections, graded, etc.
Graduate Instructor, English Department/Writing Program, University of Notre Dame, Spring/Fall, 2001: taught First-Year Writing classes.
Teaching Assistant, English Department, Notre Dame, Fall, 2000, for English literature survey course.
Substitute Teacher, K-12, Springfield Public Schools (Springfield, Missouri), 11/94-5/99.
Grading and Teaching Assistant, Department of English, the University of Pennsylvania, 9/88-
5/89. Graded undergraduate essay examinations; conducted undergraduate lecture/discussion classes.
Artist-in-Education, Missouri Arts Council, 1983-84. Conducted residencies in folk arts in Missouri elementary schools involving performance and instruction.
FOLKLORE/ORAL HISTORY:
Visiting Oral Historian for the American Society for Microbiology (Rocky Mountain Branch, Denver, Colorado), 3/96. Conducted and transcribed interview with three members of the ASM, Rocky Mountain Branch.
Scholar-in-Residence (oral historian) for United Hebrew Congregations, Springfield, Missouri, 12/92-9/93, in grant project funded by the Missouri Humanities Council on the history of the Springfield Jewish community. Conducted all aspects of oral history survey, including fieldwork and interview transcription. Presented paper at associated symposium.
Oral Historian for the Greene County Medical Society (Springfield, Missouri), 8/90-5/94. Conducted all aspects of oral history survey on medicine in the Ozarks, including fieldwork and interview transcription. Wrote proposal and served as project director for Missouri Humanities Grant (awarded 12/91); organized, oversaw, and participated in symposium, 2/92, Springfield, Missouri. Wrote proposal for additional grant from the Springfield Community Foundation in 10/93.
Head Archivist at the Charles Parker Archive, Birmingham, England, 1/87-5/88. Developed and implemented a system of classification and coordination for diverse collection of aural and written materials (including radio plays, documentaries, field recordings, lectures, and interviews), belonging to the late BBC Radio producer, Charles Parker, and relating to media history, oral history, folklore etc. Wrote procedural manual; indexed and cross-referenced books in the collection; organized materials for public use; trained assistant; assisted visiting researchers.
Public Sector Folklore Intern at the Folklife Section of the North Carolina Arts Council, 1/86-5/86. Accessioned archival materials; assisted with the Black Folk Heritage Tour.
Assistant Graduate Archivist, University of North Carolina Folksong Archive, 1984-86. Acquired, accessioned, duplicated and indexed sound recordings; revised archive manual; supervised graduate research assistants; assisted visiting researchers.
WRITING:
Feature Writer and Music Reviewer for The Spectator Magazine, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1985-86.
Free-Lance Writer, 1976-present, feature articles, and reviews.
Poetry published in Ozark Review, Manhattan Poetry Review, Dal gCais, Orbis, Moon City Review, and Outposts.
Bulletin for the Washington University Sussex Year-Abroad Program, 1976.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
“’Folk’ Vs. ‘Literary’ in Eighteenth-Century Irish Song.” Anáil an Bhéil Bheo: Orality and Modern Irish Culture. Ed. Nessa Cronin, Seán Crossan, Louis de Paor, and John Eastlake. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009.
“’The Old Irish Tonality’: Folksong as Emotional Catalyst in “The Dead.” New Hibernia Review 11.4 (Winter 2007): 136-48. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism, vol. 118, ed. Jelena Krstovic. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2009.
"'The Power of a Lie'": Storytelling Tradition in The Playboy of the Western World." New Hibernia Review 6.3 (2002): 92-112.
"A Story Behind Every Song: Recollections of Neilí Ní Dhomhnaill and Aodh Ó Duibheannaigh." Dal gCais, forthcoming volume.
"'Circumstances Alter Things': Oral History and the Life of a Jewish Community." Ozarks
Watch 12.1-2 (May, 1999): 3-8.
"Neilí Ní Dhomhnaill," "Aodh Ó Duibheannaigh," "Hedge Schoolmaster Songs," "Aisling," "Sean-nós Technique." The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, ed. Fintan Vallely (Cork: University of Cork Press, 1999.
"'For Want of Education': The Origins of the Hedge Schoolmaster Songs." Ulster Folklife 40
(1994): 27-38.
"'Play Me Something Quick and Devilish': The Old-Time Square-Dance Fiddling of Bob Holt."
The Old-Time Herald 4.6 (Winter, 1994-95): 26-30.
"The McClurg Music Parties: A Living Tradition." The Old-Time Herald 4.5 (Fall, 1994): 20-22.
"Sean-nós in Donegal: In Search of a Definition." Ulster Folklife 37 (1991): 97-105.
"Social Structure and the Irish and American Jack Tales." North Carolina Folklore Journal 34.2
(Fall-Summer, 1987): 87-105.
"Hardy's Emblem of Futility: The Role of Christminster in Jude the Obscure." The Thomas
Hardy Yearbook 14 (1987): 12-14.
RADIO PRODUCTIONS:
"Far from Home," a 60-minute documentary on the British- and Irish-American folksong tradition, for BBC Radio Leicester, England, 1987.
"As I Rode Out," a 30-minute radio documentary on traditional Irish singing, produced and narrated by Julie Henigan for National Public Radio, 1981.
