Research

60 Seconds With Bridget Bennett

What has been your most memorable career moment so far?

“There are two. At the very start of my DPhil viva the examiners told me that I had passed. They had to tell me three times before I believed them, so it has firmly stuck in my mind. The second took place some months later, when having decisively realised that I really did not want to be an academic I wandered into to British Library one evening after work to read a book. I suddenly realised it was too late: I had accidentally become one.”

Review of American Imperialism and Identity Conference

American Imperialism and National Identity Conference, University of Durham 14 June 2014   With Iraq in turmoil and U.S. military involvement in the Middle East once again in the spotlight, the timing of the ‘American Imperialism and National Identity Conference’ on the 14th of June at St. Aidan’s College, University of Durham, could not have been more prescient. This interdisciplinary conference for postgraduates and early career researchers appropriately brought together an international array of academics to present their research on a wide variety of topics pertaining to U.S. imperialism. The conference was opened with a whirlwind welcome by Philip Gannon (Durham University). Perhaps this was a little too brief, as a more detailed introduction would have counteracted the disparate nature of the conference, and established a focal point for discussion to return to. The first panel of the day – ‘9/11 and U.S. Imperialism’ – was kicked off by Dr. Flavio Sanza […]

60 Seconds With Joe Street

What has been your most memorable career moment so far?

“After I gave my first paper at the Southern Historical Association when I was writing up my PhD thesis, two people came up and said some very, very kind things about it: the SNCC activist Cleveland Sellers and the great historian John Dittmer. I felt about ten feet tall at that moment.”

60 Seconds With Sinéad Moynihan

Who would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?

“Do they have to be American? Miriam Margolyes, Tina Fey, Mary McCarthy, Alice McDermott…oh dear, this is very Judy Chicago! So passé!”

The NED in Action: US Democracy Promotion in Chile and Nicaragua, 1988 – 1989

“Although, legally, autonomous from the US government, in both Chile and Nicaragua the NED’s programmes constituted a key aspect of US foreign policy. Through special appropriations, the US was able to channel money to friendly organisations and exert subtle influence over the two countries without risking an international incident.”

60 Seconds With Zalfa Feghali

What advice would you give to early career academics?

“Unfortunately, ECR is often understood to be shorthand for unemployed academic. That’s (obviously) rubbish and can be really reductive, since it divides ECRs up rather than focuses on what common experiences they might have. What ECR actually means is that you’re way more energetic and enthusiastic than many academics you’ll encounter (that will sometimes include other ECRs).”

The U.S: A Society Without Classes? Conference Review of “How Class Works”

“In an intense and moving talk, the young militant Saket Soni shared his experience as the organizer of the Indian underpaid imported workforce in the post-Katrina New Orleans and stressed the importance of abandoning old categories to analyse new circumstances: the globalization of the job market and the explosive request for flexible/temporary workers have revolutionized the reality of workers in the U.S. Soni closed his talk by underscoring the importance of theorizing and scientifically analysing the new circumstances. This, he maintained, is the starting point to create a truly transnational workers’ organization.”

60 Seconds With Rachael Alexander

You’re stranded on a desert island, but luckily you pre-empted it. Which book do you take with you?

“My incredibly tattered copy of Angela Carter’s Burning Your Boats. It contains four of her books of short stories, so maybe I’m cheating slightly, but as it’s one paperback I think it’s acceptable. I first read The Bloody Chamber when I was eighteen and it captivated me. Carter is one of those rare authors that I never get bored of, no matter how many times I read and re-read her stories.”

Research Across Borders: Charlie Thompson, AHRC Library of Congress Fellow 2014

“As I flew out of Heathrow last October, I had tickets booked to fly home for two weeks to see my family over Christmas and New Year. By December, I had cancelled those tickets. I had met people I wanted to stay with in DC, had research I wanted to continue doing, and had made plans for events and things I wanted to see and do in and around Washington.”

Historians at Play: American History in Modern Board Games

“Putting Freedom back into the spotlight, it offers a unique way to physically interact with the issue of slavery. The mechanics of the game are assigned to a real history and the slaves that the players cannot save represent the real slaves that were doomed a fate that the game leaves to the players’ imagination. Physically moving the slaves around the United States, represented by simple wooden cubes, makes it difficult not to treat the slaves as objects.”