First Annual USF/Exeter International History Graduate Student Workshop Summer 2021 

Dr Julia Irwin (USF) and Dr Marc-William Palen (Exeter)

The pandemic has raised important questions and challenges for historical research in both domestic and international archives, which graduate students of history feel particularly keenly. Stemming from this, we held an intensive one-week research workshop May 24-28 designed to assist graduate students at USF and Exeter in overcoming pandemic-related obstacles to archival research. 

Participants joined in virtually from Austria, Italy, Germany, Exeter, and Tampa, FL. In addition to learning digital research strategies, this workshop provided students with an opportunity to participate in a virtual global exchange and to learn from renowned experts in their fields. At the end of the week, students who completed this workshop came away knowing: about the existence of many digital archives they can use for their research; how to think critically about these archives and their creation; how to navigate both online and in-person archives; and about the politics associated with funding and preserving the past. In consultation with Drs Irwin and Palen, students also developed concrete individualized research plans for their MA theses and PhD dissertations. 

This workshop was supported by generous funding from USF World, the USF History Department, and Exeter’s College of Humanities and Global Partnerships.

Participants and Speakers

Convenors: Dr Julia Irwin (USF) and Dr Marc-William Palen (Exeter)

USF Graduate Student Participants: Patrick Horan; Tamala Malerk; Scott Miller; Alexander Obermueller; Sophia Paschero; Paula Peck; Doug Ponticos; Alaina Scapicchio; Ashley Wessel

Exeter Graduate Student Participants: Ken Clayton; Maria Teresa Marangoni; Iona Ramsay; Marlen von Reith

Speakers: Dr Richard Ward (Exeter); Dr Stacey Hynd (Exeter); Dr Darcie Fontaine (USF); Dr Bob Nicholson (Edge Hill, UK); Dr Matthew Connelly (Columbia University, NYC); Richard Immerman (Temple University, Philadelphia)

Schedule

Continue reading “First Annual USF/Exeter International History Graduate Student Workshop Summer 2021 “

Global Humanitarianism Research Academy 2019 Underway #GHRA2019

Cross-posted from Humanitarianism & Human Rights

The Global Humanitarianism Research Academy (GHRA) is currently meeting for the fifth time for one week of academic training at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz before continuing with archival research at the ICRC Archives in Geneva. In this context it is a great pleasure to announce that the GHRA is joined by a new partner, the Chair in International History and Historical Peace and Conflict Studies at the Department of History of the University of Cologne.

The Research Academy addresses early career researchers who are working in the related fields of humanitarianism, international humanitarian law, peace and conflict studies as well as human rights covering the period from the 18th to the 20th century. It supports scholarship on the ideas and practices of humanitarianism in the context of international, imperial and global history thus advancing our understanding of global governance in humanitarian crises of the present.

As in the last four years the GHRA received again a huge amount of applications from an extremely talented group of scholars from more than twenty different countries around the world. The selection committee considered each proposal carefully and has selected these participants for the GHRA 2019: Continue reading “Global Humanitarianism Research Academy 2019 Underway #GHRA2019”

Confronting Catastrophe: International Disaster Assistance and Twentieth Century U.S. Foreign Relations – A Talk by Prof. Julia Irwin (4 July)

We are delighted to welcome Professor Julia Irwin (University of South Florida), who will be at the University of Exeter on a Visiting International Academic Fellowship on July 4. During her visit, she has kindly offered to give a lecture entitled ‘Confronting Catastrophe: International Disaster Assistance and Twentieth Century U.S. Foreign Relations.’ Her talk is in association with Exeter’s Centre for Imperial and Global History, the Centre for the Study of War, State and Society, and the Centre for Medical History.

When: Thursday, 4 July, 3-4:30pm

Where: Laver LT3 (University of Exeter, Streatham Campus)

Abstract: Prof. Irwin’s talk examines the history and politics of U.S. foreign disaster assistance in the 20th century. More specifically, she considers the ways that the U.S. government, military, and private organizations have historically responded to major natural disasters abroad, and critically analyses the political implications and diplomatic significance of these humanitarian efforts.

Bio: Prof. Irwin is Associate Chair in the History Department at the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on the place of humanitarianism and foreign assistance in 20th century U.S. foreign relations and international history. Her first book, Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening (Oxford University Press, 2013), is a history of U.S. relief efforts for foreign civilians in the era of the First World War, exploring both the diplomatic and the cultural significance of humanitarian aid in these years. Her work has appeared in The Journal of American History, The American Historian, Diplomatic History, First World War Studies, The Bulletin of the History of Medicine, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Moving the Social, History of Education Quarterly, and Nursing History Review. She was also the senior editor of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia in American History (2014-16). She is now writing a second book, Catastrophic Diplomacy: A History of U.S. Responses to Global Natural Disasters, which analyzes how U.S. State Department agencies, branches of the U.S. military, American charities and relief organizations, and the American public have responded to foreign disasters caused by tropical storms, earthquakes, floods, and other natural hazards throughout the twentieth century.