Visiting Anthropologist Sharon Gmelch is shown with Historic St. Mary’s City Curator of Collections and Archaeological Laboratory Director Silas Hurry (’77) in the St. John’s museum site talking about the many stories associated with this historic building. Gmelch gave a public lecture, Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life on Wednesday afternoon to an audience of 90-100 people, and met with students enrolled in Introduction to Anthropology classes where they talked about her ethnographic research in Ireland.
Sharon Gmelch is an award-winning author of nine books, including Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Women (W.W. Norton 1986), and most recently, Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life (with George Gmelch, 2014). She is a professor of anthropology at the University of San Francisco and at Union College.