Mick Gidley, Emeritus Professor of American Literature & Culture at the University of Leeds, writes poetry, only a little of which has been published, and scholarly but accessible studies of aspects of American culture, the history of photography, and literature.
He was born (1941) in Southampton, grew up in Leicester, and studied as an undergraduate at Manchester University, where he was awarded the Elizabeth Wegner Philosophy Essay Prize. He became a volunteer for Voluntary Service Overseas in what was then Eastern Nigeria. During two exciting years at Aggrey Memorial College, Arochuku, he was in awe of his hosts, introduced “direct English” instruction to the local primary school, did his best in his main secondary teaching job, traveled West Africa, and married US Peace Corps volunteer Nancy Gordon. After studying for an MA at the University of Chicago, during which time "Poetry" magazine gave him his first proper publication, he returned to England to embark on doctoral research at the University of Sussex, where he also gained his first academic appointment. At Sussex, and then as Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Exeter, he published a number of articles, mainly on William Faulkner, but also on Scott Fitzgerald, e.e. cummings, and others.
In the mid-1970s, Mick Gidley was awarded a year-long Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies to conduct research at the Burke Museum, University of Washington, on Edward S. Curtis, the photographer and amateur anthropologist of Native Americans. With his wife and two children, Ruth and Ben, he was able to visit most of the western Indian reservations. Out of these experiences came several articles and the books “With One Sky Above Us” (1979) and “Kopet: White Witnesses to Chief Joseph’s Last Years” (1981). The main results of his Curtis research are “The Vanishing Race” (1976), “Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated” (1998) and “Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field” (2003). Later work in photography ranges from articles on E. O. Hoppé, through the editing of a book of essays on literature and the camera titled “Writing with Light” (2009), to participation in the project that produced “Picturing Atrocity” (2012). His most recent books are “Photography and the USA” (2011) and “The Grass Shall Grow: Helen Post Photographs the Native American West” (2020).
At Exeter, Mick Gidley was Associate Director of the American Arts Documentation Centre and edited the American Arts Pamphlet Series, which included his own “A Catalogue of American Paintings in British Public Collections” (1974) and “Audio-Visual Materials for American Studies” (final ed., 1983). Alongside spells as head of the American and Commonwealth Arts teaching unit and Director of the Centre for American & Commonwealth Arts & Studies (AmCAS), he edited two books for AmCAS: “Locating the Shakers” (1990) and “Representing Others” (1992). He also edited a textbook, “Modern American Culture: An Introduction” (1993). He became very active in the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) and, later, represented BAAS on the board of the European Association for American Studies (EAAS). Some of the books he edited or co-edited – including “Views of American Landscapes” (1989), “American Photographs in Europe” (1994), and “Modern American Landscapes” (1995) – originated in EAAS conference sessions.
From 1995 until his retirement from teaching, he served as Professor of American Literature at Leeds. At the national level, he served on numerous committees, including the RAE Panel for American Studies and the inaugural Arts and Humanities Research Board Panel for English Language & Literature. During this Leeds period, he was also appointed William Robertson Coe Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of Wyoming (2005). His other honors include a Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (1991-92), the Arthur Miller Essay Prize (2007), and an Honorary Fellowship of BAAS (2009).
