Jessica Cawley
Jessica Cawley, from Manchester, NH, is a senior music education major at UNH.
About two years ago, Jessica’s love for Ireland and for teaching music came together with the award of a grant by the International Research Opportunities Program (IROP). She describes her travel to Ireland as a very humbling experience: “I now realize why I love Irish music. It seems the more you learn about Irish music, the more you realize that you know very little about it. The intricacies of the tunes, history, emotions, and etiquette, are very overwhelming at first, but the kindness of the Irish people inspired me….It is true I learned much about Irish culture, but I continue to be humbled every day by the level of musicianship I witnessed in Ireland.” Upon graduating in May 2006, Jessica will teach in the public school system, but she ultimately wishes to return to Ireland to pursue a master’s degree in ethnomusicology.
Susan S. Hatfield
Susan S. Hatfield, instructor of music education at UNH from 2003-2005, specializes in music development and music learning theory, and is currently a music learning consultant in New York City. After having Jessica as a student in several courses in music education, Dr. Hatfield was pleased to see her research proposal combine elements of her formal education with her independent self-education on Irish music and culture. “The depth of Jessica’s informal research was unexpected to me,” says Hatfield. “She knew so much about the culture before she even arrived in Ireland. Her enthusiasm for the project and for its implications for later research was genuine and contagious.”
Read Jessica Cawley’s research article, Investigating the Ways the Irish Learn Music >>
