Curriculum Vitae of John McLaughlin

Born Glasgow, Scotland, April, 1939: sixth of eight sons of Stirling McLaughlin, who served with Montgomery's Desert Rats in North Africa while my mother Margaret McCracken-McLaughlin scrubbed office floors at night to keep the family together. Attended Camlachie Elementary School and Riverside Secondary School in Glasgow until 1954. Dalmarnock Amateur Boxing Club, 1953-55: Scottish Champion, 8 stone, 7 pounds (class A) , 1955. British Merchant Navy, 1956-58: TS Vindicatrix, as catering trainee, Summer, 1956: first trip on the Bristol City Line, Bristol-Montreal-Bristol, Sept-Oct 1956; second trip on Court Line trampship, Gibraltar-Haifa-Morfu Bay-Bizerte-Port Elizabeth-Tampico-London(?), Nov.'56-April '57;third trip Leith-Newport News-Puerto Ordaz-Mazatlan-Guaymas-Panama Canal-Kobe-Osaka-Chimbote-Galveston-Santos-Rio Grande do Sul-Santos-Capetown-Singapore-Dai Ren-Tsen Tsing-Sing Tao-Suez Canal-Algiers- Hamburg-Bremerhaven-Hook of Holland-Harwich, May 1957-July 1958.
Emigrated to US of A, Dec. 1958.

Higher Education:

Associate in Arts, General Education (interdisciplinary program), Boston University, 1960.
B.A., English, Harvard College, 1962: Phi Beta Kappa, Magna cum laude.
M.A., English, U. California, Berkeley, 1963: Woodrow Wilson Fellow.
PhD, English, Harvard University, 1971. Dissertation: "A Comparative Analysis of the Nativity Sections of the Middle English Corpus Christi Cycle Plays." Advisors: BJ Whiting, Wm. Alfred.
Mellon Foundation Fellow, NYU, Fall, 1984. Medieval Studies and Post-Modern Critical Theory.

Community Service:

Member Community Relations Committee, Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1973-74.
Co-founder (with Jamie Downs), Director, The Folk Life, non-profit traditional arts organization, 1976-
Host and Producer of weekly folk music radio program, Roots and Wings, on WESS, 90.3FM, East Stroudsburg University radio station, 1982-2000.
Co-founder (with Jamie Downs), Director, A Family of Artists, non-profit alternative school and fine arts center, 1989-1997
Interviewer, Harvard University Admissions Committee, 1992-Present.
Awards judge, National Association of Independent Record Producers, 1994.
Showcase judge, North American Folk Alliance Regional Convention, Lake Harmony, PA., 1995.

Teaching Experience:

Boston University, Clark University, Lowell StateTeachers' College, Bloomsburg State College, La Salle College, Temple University, East Stroudsburg University, 1963-2000. Emeritus Faculty, ESU, Dec. 2000.

Courses Taught:

First Year Composition, Basic Skills, Intro to Lit Analysis, Technical Writing, Business Communications, Chaucer, Old and Middle English, History & Development of the English Language, Introductory Linguistics, Introduction to Folklore, Metamorphosis and Initiation, Crime and Punishment.

Selected Publications:

"Sir Orfeo as Return Song," Journal of American Folklore, Summer 1974.

The Folk Life magazine (editor and publisher): featured interviews with Charlie Barnes, Eugene O'Donnell, David Amram, John Hartford, Jim Downs, Peter Taney, Tony Barrand, Mary Faith Rhoades, George Gritzbach, Beverly Cotton, Bill Vanaver, Stan Rogers, Mick Moloney, Tommy Thompson, Martin Carthy, Gene Shay, Stretch Pyott, John Jackson, Liam Clancy and others, 1976-1979.

"Fiddling in the Poconos: Survival or Revival?" Proceedings of the 9th Annual Appalachian Studies Conference,
Appalachian Consortium, Boone, NC, 1987.

"That Rough Beast, Reynardine, in Beast Fable, Vision, and Ballad," Proceedings of EAPSU Conference, Kutztown, PA, 1990.

"The Ethics of Collaborative Writing," Proceedings of EAPSU Conference, Bloomsburg, PA, 1993.

"Book Review: (solicited) The Matter of Scotland: Historical Narrative in Medieval Scotland, by R.J. Goldstein (U. Nebraska, 1993)": in Arthuriana, Vol 4, No. 3 (Fall, 1994), 288-90.

"Book Review: (solicited) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, by David Crystal (Cambridge U. Press, 1995)," in Language Quarterly, Vol 33, Nos. 3-4 (Summer-Fall, 1995), 249-51.

Six Years in the Life of A Family of Artists, (1995) Centre for Rural Pennsylvania, PA State Legislative Agency. Grant funded publication at request of Cultural Advisor to the Governor.

"Book Review: (solicited) Geoffrey Chaucer: The Wife of Bath, by Peter Beidler (St. Martin's Press, 1996)", in Envoi, (April, 1997), 33-36.

"Book Review: (solicited) Hamlet on the Holodeck, by Janet Murray (MIT Press 1998)" Kairos: An On-Line Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments (Fall, 1999).

"Book Review: (solicited) The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurtzweil (Intelligence Penguin Books, 1999)" Kairos :An On-line Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments, (Spring, 2000).

"Book Review: (solicited), The Religion of Technology,by David Noble (Penguin Books, 1999) Resource Center for Studies in Cyberculture. (August, 2000).