George Gmelch

Faculty Emeritus

Biography

Before becoming an anthropologist, George Gmelch played professional baseball in the Detroit Tigers organization. He is the author of fourteen books including a memoir about his baseball life, Playing with Tigers: A Minor-League Chronicle of the Sixties, which was a finalist for the Casey Award for the best baseball book of 2016. Over his fifty-year teaching career he regularly ran anthropology field programs in the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. He is now retired and living on in the Napa Valley.

Expertise

Cultural anthropology
Migration studies
Sport cultures
Running field programs

Research Areas

Migration
Sport cultures
Tourism

Appointments

Co-director, Cultural Anthropology

Education

PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara

Prior Experience

Professor, Anthropology, Union College
Professor, Anthropology, SUNY Albany
Professor, Anthropology, McGill University

Selected Publications

Playing with Tigers: A Minor-League Chronicle of the Sixties. University of Nebraska Press (2020)
In the Field: The Work and Life of Anthropology. (with S. Gmelch) University of California Press (2018)
Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life (with S. Gmelch). Bloomingdale: Indiana University Press (2014)
Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valley. (With S. Gmelch). Indiana University Press (2011)