Dr Amy Hale
Teaches:
Introduction to Surrealism
The Celts in the Esoteric Imagination
I am an Anthropologist specializing in contemporary Celtic cultures, with an emphasis on modern Cornwall and contemporary Esoteric culture and history. I received my PhD in 1998 from UCLA in Folklore and Mythology and my dissertation was on the intersections between various constructions of Celtic identity in Cornwall, both ethnic and spiritual. I have worked with the Cornish since 1994, and have also undertaken comparative research in Ireland, Wales, and the U.S. In terms of Western Esoteric Studies I have particular interests in the intersections between esoteric movements and intellectual history, identity politics, research methods and also in Pagan and esoteric spiritual tourism. My recent projects have focused on a study of the life and work of Surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun where I seek to understand her position within the development of several different streams of British intellectual and spiritual culture in the mid to late 20th century.
I am a specialist in online learning and teaching and have been designing and teaching online courses in the Humanities and Anthropology since 1999. I’m a firm believer in the power and potential for online and distance learning to reach people and also to bring together people from different communities in learning experiences. I teach as an adjunct (or, as an “academic mercenary”) for four different schools in the United States, and work entirely online. I rather love it.
In my spare time I enjoy walking, writing, going to the gym, barbershop singing, occasional video blogging, and supporting the local roller derby team. I live in San Jose California with my husband Rhett and our two cats Opie and Germoe, but I can also be frequently found in London or Cornwall.
Select Publications
Books
Raising Piran’s Standard: Cornish Identity Politics and Economic Policy. Berlin: LIT Verlag (Forthcoming 2011)
The Supersensual Life of Ithell Colquhoun: Surrealism, Occultism, Celticism. London, Francis Boutle Press, (Forthcoming 2011)
Journal of the Academic Study of Magic 5. Co edited with Susan Johnston Graf. Oxford: Mandrake Press, 2009.
New Directions in Celtic Studies. Co edited with Philip Payton. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000.
Inside Merlin’s Cave: A Cornish Arthurian Reader. Co edited with Alan M. Kent and Tim Saunders. London: Francis Boutle Press, 2000.
Journal Articles
‘The Land Near the Dark Cornish Sea: The Development of Tintagel as a Celtic Pilgrimage Site’. In The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic Issue 2, 2004.
‘Representing the Cornish: Contesting Heritage Interpretation in Cornwall’. In Tourism Studies 1(2), 2001 pp. 185-196.
‘Cultural Studies and Cornish Studies: A Retrospective’ in Cornish Studies 10 edited by Payton, P. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002.
‘In the Eye of the Sun: the Relationship between the Cornish Gorseth and Esoteric Druidry.’ In Cornish Studies 8, edited by Philip Payton. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000.
‘The Old Cornwall Societies and the Cornish-Celtic Revival.’ In Celtic History and Literature Review. Issue 2, 1998, pp. 42-47.
‘Rethinking Celtic Cornwall: An Ethnographic Approach.’ In Cornish Studies 5, edited by Philip Payton. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1997.
‘Genesis of the Celto-Cornish Revival?: L.C. Duncombe Jewell and the Cowethas Celto-Kernuak.’ In Cornish Studies 5, edited by Philip Payton. Exeter: University of Exeter Press 1997.
‘A Foot in the Door or a Foot in the Mouth?: Evaluating Malcolm Chapman’s The Celts.’ In Cornish Studies 4, edited by Philip Payton. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1996.
Chapters
“The Art and Magic of Ithell Colquhoun” in Brill Handbook of Modern Western Magic. Edited by N. Drury and H. Bogdan. Netherlands: Brill Publishing (forthcoming).
“Swords of Meteoric Iron: Archangel Michael and the Politics of Celtic Spirituality” in The Harp and the Constitution: Myths of Celtic and Gothic Origin 1700-2000, edited by J. Parker. Netherlands: Brill Publishing (forthcoming 2010)
“White Men Can’t Dance: Evaluating Race, Class and Rationality in Ethnographies of the Esoteric” in Ten Years After Triumph of the Moon edited by D. Green and D. Evans. Bristol: Hidden Publishing, 2009.
‘Selling Celtic Cornwall: Changing Markets and Meanings’ in Tourism, Consumption and Representation: Narratives of Place and Self edited by Meethan, K, Anderson, A. and Miles, S. Wallingford: CABI Publishing, 2006.
Exhibitions and Creative work
Curator and Exhibition Script for “Alchemy of Granite: Landscape Art and Poetry of Ithell Colquhoun”. Tremough Campus, Cornwall and Cornwall Centre, July 2010
Co-Director with Rhett Aultman “Cowboy Up: The Story of Florida’s First Gay Rodeo”. April 2006. Winner of the 2006 Vloggy “People’s Choice Award”.
Curator, “Visions of Utopia and Dystopia” Online Exhibition. www.transhumanism.org. World Transhumanist Association, April 2006.
Co-organizer Festival of Southern Art and Culture Mennello Museum of American Folk Art (Orlando), April 2002
Project Development Cornish Cultural Grid for Learning (Virtual Community Archive and Technology training program) University of Exeter Telesmatics Department, 2001.
Event Programmer Tamarisk 2000: A Festival of Celtic Culture and the Environment, Newquay, Cornwall September, 2000
Exhibition script for 2000 Years of Cornish Culture Newquay, 2002.
