Meghan Forsyth
Ethnomusicology
B.Mus. University of Lethbridge
M.Phil. University of Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Toronto
Meghan Forsyth is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Post-Doctoral Fellow in ethnomusicology at MUN. Her current research focuses on creativity and innovation in traditional music performance, the negotiation through music of Acadian ethnocultural identity on les Îles-de-la-Madeleine of Québec, and Francophone cultural tourism in eastern Canada. She is curator and co-investigator of a collaborative multimedia exhibition on traditional Acadian dance in eastern Canada. Her previous research projects examined revival and pan-identity in Acadian instrumental traditions on Prince Edward Island and contemporary performance and composition in the fiddling tradition of the Shetland Islands (UK). In 2008 she was awarded the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation award for research in Canadian Music.
Dr. Forsyth has published articles in The Journal of the Society for American Music, Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, and Canadian Folk Music. She is a contributing author to Bellows and Bows: Traditional Instrumental Music from Canadian Performers of Earlier Generations, and a collaborator on Les Faiseaux des tunes/Tunesmiths: Le premier répertoire de compositions acadiennes de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard/ The first collection of Acadian compositions from Prince Edward Island. Prior to moving to Newfoundland, Dr. Forsyth taught at Ryerson University (Toronto).
In addition to her academic teaching and research, Dr. Forsyth is an active performer and teaches traditional fiddle and Suzuki violin. From 2000 to 2003, she toured with southern Alberta-based singer-songwriter John Wort Hannam and co-organises and teaches at the annual Prince Edward Island Fiddle Camp.
