Michael
E. Bell, Ph.D. • 49 Parkway Avenue • Cranston, RI 02905
401-781-5531
• folk-lore@cox.net
CURRICULUM VITAE
of
Michael
E. Bell
Education
Ph.D., Folklore (Anthropology minor), Indiana University, Bloomington, 1980. Dissertation topic: African American voodoo practices.
M.A., Folklore and Mythology, University of California at Los Angeles, 1972.
B.A., Anthropology/Archaeology, University of Arizona, Tucson, 1966. M.A. level course work completed in Archaeology, 1968.
Professional Employment
1980-present Consulting Folklorist, Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission
Develop
and implement programs--and collect, maintain and make accessible to the
public, materials--that express and interpret Rhode Island folklife and oral history.
Funded by a Legislative Grant to the Folklife Program from the State of Rhode
Island; subgranted to Heritage Harbor Museum.
Recent
Public Programs/Projects
2004-present Principal Scholar, Pawtuxet
Village: One Space, Many Places
A
collaboration of scholars, artists, and educators is guiding 4th
through 6th grade children and adults in using and creating maps to
explore selected sites in Pawtuxet Village. Beginning with the participants’
connections to sites that exist today, the team has lead children and adults
back in time via historical walking tours, site visits and oral histories. Participants
imagine and document these places and the different groups who lived there
through drawing, photography, gathering oral histories, and writing. Drawing
upon these resources, they are creating an artistically conceived history atlas
of the village featuring three visual story maps--Present Day, 1750-1950,
1600-1750—that interpret the European-American, African-American and
Native-American communities during those three time periods. Sponsored by the
Cranston Public Library and funded by the Rhode Island Council for the
Humanities and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
2004-present Principal Scholar, Vanishing
Orchards
We
are documenting and interpreting the occupational folklife and oral history of
Rhode Island’s apple growing culture through direct interviews, still
photography (color slides and black-and-white), and videotape. Occupational
folklife, in this case, includes the year-round, everyday activities of those involved
in the cultivation of apples as well as the groups they interact with while
conducting their business. Apple growing families, hired orchard workers,
fruit-stand owners and employees, wholesalers, retailers and direct customers
(such as pick-your-own consumers) are included in the wider scope of this
folklife. The history and oral history of this culture provides the background
for our interpretation. Sponsored by the Rhode Island Historical Society and
funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
2003-04 Principal Scholar, Pawtuxet
Village Freedom Project
My
responsibilities included the following: identify research topics that speak to
the various conceptions of freedom as a folk idea evident in the history of Pawtuxet
Village, Rhode Island, from the early seventeenth century to the present;
coordinate participating scholars in bringing research materials into the public
discourse through Saturday library programs for children and their parents;
link the scholarship to the work of participating artists and community
historians; deliver the keynote public lecture entitled, “Freedom as a Folk
Idea in Pawtuxet Village.” Sponsored by the Cranston Public Library and funded
by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Verizon, and the Rhode Island
State Council on the Arts.
2000-04 Co-Director, Folklorist
& Writer, From Bullrakes to Clambakes
Compiled a permanent and accessible record of the occupational folklife of the Narragansett Bay shellfishery, through direct observation of pertinent activities in their natural context and interviews with “key informants.” The research team assembled a documentary record through still photography, videography, audio recording and field notes that was used to produce a travelling exhibit, book and videotape. The exhibit was shown at the Newport Historical Society Museum, the Museum of Work and Culture of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Warwick Public Library, Cranston Public Library, University of Rhode Island, the Bristol Art Museum, the Museum of Natural History at Roger Williams Park, Providence, and the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, Washington. Sponsored by Heritage Harbor Museum and funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
2001-2003 Advisory Panelist, Rhode
Island E-Encyclopedia Project
Panelists
investigated the feasibility, methodology, scope, content and design of an online,
electronic encyclopedia for Rhode Island. Funded by a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities to the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
1994-99 Folklorist and Senior
Writer, A Living Museum
Conducted
interviews, researched history, wrote interpretive text panels and essay,
delivered illustrated lectures and produced teachers' guide to community based
projects for a traveling photographic exhibition interpreting the history, oral
history and folklife of the Looff Carousel at Crescent Park, Rhode Island. Funded by the Rhode Island Council for the
Humanities. A related educational
component was funded by the Rhode Island Foundation. The exhibit has been shown at four public
libraries, the Newport Art Museum, the Rhode Island School of Design, and
Heritage Plantation, Cape Cod.
1997 Oral Historian, The
United Shoe Machinery Corporation
Conducted
an oral history of the United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Beverly,
Massachusetts for the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Deliverables included oral history interviews
(with transcriptions) and photographs of former USMC employees and an
interpretive summary of results.
1996-97 Writer, Rhode Island
Communities: A Photographic Study
Wrote
brief history for five Rhode Island communities to accompany photographs by
senior photography students at the Rhode Island School of Design for a book and
traveling exhibition. Funded by RISD and
Hospital Trust, Bank of Boston.
1993-94 Folklorist, Devil’s
Foot Rock
“Devil’s
Foot Rock: Phase II - Determination of Eligibility [for inclusion in the
National Register as a traditional cultural property] Study, Devil’s Foot Rock,
North Kingstown, Rhode Island,” for Rhode Island Department of Transportation
under subcontract to Public Archaeology Survey Team, Inc. Researched, conducted interviews,
photographed and interpreted significance of this legendary site as promulgated
in National Register Bulletin 38.
Recent
Publications
Book
2001,
Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires (New York:
Carroll & Graf), 337 pp. A BookSense 76 Pick and winner of the Lord Ruthven
Assembly Award for Best Nonfiction Book on Vampires 2002 (paperback edition
2002).
Book Chapters
1993,
“From Bullrakes to Clamcakes: Occupational Folklife of Narragansett Bay,” pp.
85-89; “Fishing: Narragansett Bay's Oldest Profession,” pp. 90-93;
“Narragansett Bay's Narrative Tradition,” pp. 140-145 in What A Difference A
Bay Makes, edited by Deborah Brennan and Margaret Shea (Providence: Rhode
Island Historical Society and Rhode Island Department of State Library Services).
Refereed Articles
Accepted
for publication (2005), “Belief,” entry in Encyclopedia of American Folklife,
edited by Simon D. Bronner (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe).
Accepted
for publication (2005), “Black Cat Bone,” entry in Encyclopedia of African
American Folklore, edited by Anand Prahlad (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press).
Accepted
for publication (2004), “Vampires,” entry in Encyclopedia of New England
Culture, edited by Burt Feintuch and
David H. Watters (New Haven: Yale University Press).
2003,
“Book, Bones and Beliefs: Rethinking Resources for Historical Interpretation,” New
England Archivists Newsletter 30:4,
pp. 4-7.
1994,
“The Occupational Folklife of Quahogging on Narragansett Bay,” Fishers Forum 1993 Proceedings,
Publications of the Maritime Heritage Subcommittee, No. 2, edited by Michael E.
Bell (Providence: Rhode Island Heritage Commission), pp. 47-50.
Monographs
2002,
From Bullrakes to Clambakes: The Occupational Folklife of the Narragansett
Bay Shellfishery (Providence, Heritage Harbor Museum), 14 pp.
1997,
Writer, Rhode Island Communities: A Photographic Study (Providence:
Hospital Trust National Bank).
1995,
A Living Museum: The Looff Carousel, A Teacher’s Guide to Community Based Projects
(Providence: The Rhode Island Foundation).
Editorships
2002,
Text Creation and Photo Research, Daughters of the Dark 2002 Calendar
(New York: Hudson Park Press).
2001,
Text Creation and Photo Research, Daughters of the Dark 2001 Calendar
(New York: Hudson Park Press).
1998,
Editor, Fishers Forum 1997 Proceedings, Publications
of the Maritime Heritage Subcommittee, No. 3, (Providence: Rhode Island Historical
Preservation & Heritage Commission), 50 pp.
1994,
Editor, Fishers Forum 1993 Proceedings, Publications
of the Maritime Heritage Subcommittee, No. 2, (Providence: Rhode Island
Heritage Commission), 61 pp.
1993,
Editor, Fishers Forum 1992: Proceedings, Publications of the Maritime
Heritage Subcommittee, No. 1, (Providence: Rhode Island Heritage Commission),
57 pp.
Lecturing
and Teaching
I
have delivered hundreds of papers, lectures, and workshops before professional,
academic and general audiences on such topics as folklore theory and methodology,
research and fieldwork, public programming, folk song and ballad, relationships
among folklore, history and popular culture, local legend, supernatural belief
legends, modern legends, African-American belief systems, folk art and craft,
Native American traditions, family folklore, children's folklore, folklife in
Rhode Island and New England, and oral history. I also have served as adjunct
professor in Departments of Folklore, English, American Studies, and
Anthropology at colleges and universities.
Professional
Activities and Service
1986-present Cranston Historic District
Commission: Chair, 1994-2004; Vice Chair, 1993.
1984-present National Endowment for the
Humanities: Panelist for Museums and Historical Organizations, Youth Projects;
Outside Evaluator for Library Programs
1982-present Rhode Island State Council on
the Arts: Panelist for Grants, Apprenticeship, and Fellowship Programs