From February 4 – February 27, the Stonington Historical Society will debut new and permanent exhibition on slavery. Thanks to the dedicated research of two members of the UConn History community, Professor Nancy Steenburg and former graduate student Liz Kading, the story of Venture Smith will shed light on the multifaceted landscapes of slavery and freedom in 18th century New England. The exhibition, entitled, “My Freedom is a Privilege that Nothing Else Can Equal,” will mark the re-opening of the Lighthouse Museum. Admission will be free throughout the month. For more information:
Author: Holden, Constance
Undergraduate Alumni Spotlight: Sulema DePeyster in the Field
We are thrilled to announce that UConn History ’21 graduate Sulema DePeyster has decided to continue her work in community-based historical engagement. She has joined the Windsor Historical Society as the first Community History Specialist. In this newly created position, DePeyster will design oral history projects that engage the Windsor community. During her time at UConn, DePeyster worked with History Professor Fiona Vernal on several oral history projects that made the untold stories of Windsor residents more visible and accessible. DePeyster’s commendable work garnered awards including the Undergraduate History Excellence Award and the Sandra Rux Fellowship. Read more about Sulema DePeyster in this article from the Windsor Historical Society. Congratulations! We look forward to this next chapter.
Undergraduate Honors Student Thesis Spotlight: Abigail Meliso
For their senior honors thesis, UConn History ’21 graduate, Abigail Meliso, reflected on the roles and contributions of women to theater in Ancient Greece. Great work!
Abigail Meliso, “Greek Women and the Theatre: An Analysis of the Presence and Participation of Women in Ancient Greek Theater”
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Joseph McAlhany
Western drama can trace its lineage back thousands of years to classical Greece. We see the impact of classical playwrights still in modern theater, as well as various other areas of our society. Even now, students are assigned Antigone in high school and Oedipus has had his troubles immortalized in psychiatric jargon. However, as ubiquitous and easily accessible as it is now, scholarship throughout the years has debated how inclusive classical Greek theater was, particularly in regards to whether women were permitted to participate in or even observe performances. While it has proven popular to deny this possibility, given the occasional raunchiness of the plays and the limited autonomy of women at the time, some evidence suggests that, not only were women present in the audience of theatrical festivals, but sometimes a few select women would perform publicly.
Graduate Student Spotlight: Matthew Novosad
In November 2021, UConn History Master’s student Matthew Novosad presented at UConn’s annual Graduate Research Conference. This conference is an opportunity for 2nd year graduate students to engage their research ideas with the broader UConn community. The work presented at this conference is based on research conducted during the 5102 course, “Historical Research and Writing.” Matthew Novosad’s research examines perceptions of submarine warfare during the First World War. His paper was titled, ” ‘The law of nations, the law of man, and the law of God’: Discourse on Submarine Warfare in American Newspapers during the First World War.” He is also the president of the Franklin Historical Society and board member of Ashbel Woodward Museum in Franklin, CT.
1) What is your 5102 research project about? What are the central research questions? What are some of your findings?
My 5102 Research project was about the discourses about submarine warfare during the First World War in the United States. I primarily utilized newspapers for this project, drawing especially on editorials, advertisements, and letters to the editor. One of the guiding questions for all of my research, not just this project, is why did the submarine come to be almost exclusively associated with Germany during the World Wars, even when other countries made extensive usage of their submarine fleets? As well, I am also interested in how was the submarine understood during the war. I felt that one potential way to explore these questions was to look at how submarines were being discussed in the United States and to thus see if the discourse was about the submarine as an object. As I discovered, the conversations were mostly about the usage of submarines and how people viewed that usage within a legal framework. Additionally, I was interested in how the submarine was viewed in a wider cultural context but was only able to scratch the surface of that theme with this project. Films, I feel, would be an interesting angle to explore as there were multiple submarine related movies produced and released during the war that didn’t have much utilize the conflict as a theme – such as The Submarine Pirate in 1915 which starred Charlie Chaplin’s half-brother Sydney Chaplin. Another was the 1916 production of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
2) How did you become interested in your research topic?
My father was a submariner during the late Cold War and he served onboard the USS George Washington Carver (SSBN 656) and the USS Augusta (SSN 710) so I grew up in a Navy household covered in Navy and submarine decorations. I also attended the Avery Point campus for my BA and most days I drove by a sign which stated that Groton is the “Submarine Capital of the World”. We could look out of our classroom windows and maybe see a Submarine leaving the Thames River and Long Island Sound for the Atlantic. I’d say I’m a product of my environment.
Additionally, I’ve always had an interest in the First World War and when I was an undergraduate, I discovered pictures of British and French submarines which had participated in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. I had never known, up until that point, that the Allied powers utilized submarines during the First World War. It sent me on an odyssey to discover as much as I can about them. There are many questions I feel that can be explored through the Allied usage of submarines: What challenges does a naval war pose to coalition warfare? How did the Allied powers fit the usage of submarines into their strategies? How did they ‘sell’ their usage when they were condemning the Germans for Unrestricted Submarine Warfare? What relationship existed between civilians and an, at the time, relatively new weapons system? What can we glean about an emerging military-industrial complex (or as other scholars have termed for this period a “naval-industrial complex”)? How were the experiences of the First World War absorbed institutionally by Allied navies, how did that affect them going into the Second World War?
That’s a bit of a long-winded way of saying I became interested in this particular topic for my 5102 Paper in an effort to hopefully learn a little bit about the disconnect between the Allied usage of submarines during the war, and why they are almost non-existent in many accounts of the war at sea during the First World War. The specific shape that the project took, analyzing material that mostly came from newspapers, was the result of circumstance. COVID-19 and attending my first year of Graduate School online made doing other sorts of research more problematic.
3) What were some of the strategies that you used to organize your research? Did you use any digital tools or software?
My main organizational tool was Zotero. It made not only saving and organizing the secondary literature easy, it also let me maintain a well-organized database of my primary sources. I sorted them principally by date as I was exploring responses to the submarine at certain “flashpoints” such as the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 or the German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917. Zotero also made citations much easier!
4) What was your favorite part of this research project?
The cozy days I spent with tea or hot cocoa (two of the three major drinks in the Royal Navy during the First World War) sifting through the mountains of material I had uncovered. There’s a sense of adventure and discovery as you get to actually start reading through your primary sources. I like to envision myself almost like Gandalf in Fellowship of the Ring when he goes to do research on the “One Ring”, although with far less at stake than the fate of Middle-Earth! I will say though, that for this project, I did miss the physicality of in-person research.
5) What was a memorable finding that you uncovered during your research?
It was easily the advertisements. Some of them were very humorous with slogans such as “Submarine Prices, Aeroplane Quality” while others can make you scratch your head such as a two week, two page spread of a “Submarine Sale” which used the imagery of unrestricted submarine warfare to sell clothing. At the very least, the companies who utilized these sorts of motifs did not believe that there was enough public animus against the submarine as an object that they could use it to try and sell their wares so I found that to be extremely memorable.
6) How did this project shape how you conceptualize your future career and/or research goals?
It has clarified for me that Allied Submarines were nearly forgotten during the war, let alone after it. I’d love to explore more deeply how they were (or weren’t) utilized in propaganda and in the construction of post-war national narratives. It has also helped show me that there is no work which deals with the design and usage of the submarine in a truly transnational context. For example, many histories treat John Holland, an Irish immigrant to the United States, as the “inventor” of the submarine. Holland’s big innovation was combining already existing inventions which had been used in submarine construction in countries like Spain and France, and then selling his version to the US Government. I’d love to see how inventors across the globe envisioned their submarine designs and research from the 1850s onwards. I’d also love to explore the concept of Connecticut as an “arsenal” of the United States. Both major American submarine designers and manufacturers were based in Connecticut: Electric Boat was (and still is) in Groton, while Lake Torpedo Boat Company was based in Bridgeport. Both companies sold their designs to the United States Navy and to other governments around the globe.
7) What inspired you to pursue a graduate degree in history?
Like Ishmael in the opening chapter of Moby-Dick, I accounted it was high time I went “to sea” once again. Graduate school, for me, was the next logical step in my career. I had taken time off after completing my BA in 2018 to take stock and see what I really wanted to do. In October 2019, after a year and a half of part-time jobs (some of which I loved, some of which I didn’t) I decided it was finally time to apply and to take my history career to the next step. I don’t see myself doing much outside of the realm of history – although what form that explicitly takes, I am not yet currently sure of.
8) What do you appreciate about studying history?
The freedom. I get to explore topics that interest me and even more importantly I get to share what interests me with other people. Research and studying are a paramount part of the job, but I find that what’s key to me is sharing historical knowledge and methods with a wider audience. It’s why I participate in the “AskHistorians” project, why I’ve appeared made podcast appearances, why I reenact as a hobby, and why I work so hard on local history as President of the Franklin Historical Society and as board member of the Ashbel Woodward Museum in Franklin, CT – because the teaching of history is what really excites me. I like sharing my insights and excitement with others!
9) If you could teach any course, what would it be and why?
I’m torn, I would love to teach a course about the First World War or a course about local history. The First World War I hope is at least a little obvious based on my earlier answers! I feel there’s a lot that students could gain from a course on the war and the way that we still very much live with its legacies. I envision such a course focusing not just on the European theatres, but its global dimensions and impact. It would also give me a chance to talk not only about submarines and the war at sea, but also about cavalry which is a rabbit hole of mine!
On the other hand, I’m in many ways wedded to local Connecticut history. It’s my firm belief that all history is local history in at least some way and I get so much personal value out of my work at the Franklin Historical Society and Museum. I’ve found in my tenure as the Franklin Historical Society President that my very small town as a very big history which connects it to so many major events and social movements. Franklin has both been influenced by, and has itself influenced, the larger world. No place is “unchanging” and it’s extremely fulfilling to help tell new narratives and stories in a town which had a fairly “static” history. I also find that local history has much more immediacy for people and makes the “big” more tangible. To be able to share Connecticut history with students would be an honor.
Undergraduate Honors Student Thesis Spotlight: Madison May
UConn ’21 graduate Madison May worked with UConn History Professor Charles Lansing on their senior thesis. Their project is an intellectual history of Black political thought within the context of World War II. In focusing on Black perceptions and writings about World War II, Nazism, and Jewish persecution, May examines how the global fight against Nazi Germany influenced the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. A job well done!
Madison May, “Persecution Reaps Freedom: the Impact of the War Against Nazi Germany on the American Civil Rights Movement”
Thesis Advisor: Charles Lansing
This senior honors thesis examines the experience of African Americans during World War II, abroad and on the home front. The guiding questions for this study include: what was the relationship between the Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement?; What did Black soldiers and journalists, at home and abroad, think about the fight against Nazism?; Did the existence of the atrocities committed during World War II accelerate social change? Finally, what connections did Black Americans make with Jewish persecution? Although work has already been done on this topic, this thesis is original in its source content and builds upon the past work of others. Sources for this thesis include a mixture of books, articles, monographs, oral histories, and newspaper articles. There are twenty-two interviews by Black World War Two veterans and twenty-five articles from African American newspapers used as research, spanning from 1933, when the Nazis came to power, to 1946, a year after the war ended. It has been concluded from the research that African American experience during World War II did in fact serve as a spark for the Civil Rights Movement, and social change in general.
Brendan Kane Contributes to University of Oxford Blog
How do scholars begin to consider the Irish Gaelic role in shaping parliamentary culture? UConn History Prof. Brendan Kane begins to answer this question in a recent blog post that examines the making of the early modern Irish state. Writing for the University of Oxford, Prof. Kane challenges the silences of the archive and encourages richer historical methods that ask new questions of familiar texts. Read more in Parliament and Parliaments from the Gaelic Perspective!
Brendan Kane Mentioned in RTE Article on Irish Language Learning
UConn History Professor Brendan Kane’s work to make learning early modern Irish accessible has been featured in RTÉ Brainstorm, a segment of the Irish public press that highlights academic research that contributes to broader discussions about Ireland and Irish culture. Instead of making a New Year’s Resolution to “run a marathon” or “master sourdough,” the article encourages readers to learn Irish as a part of their “new year, new me” goals. Brendan Kane’s collaborative initiative, the Léamh project, offers tools to make reading early modern Irish fun, innovative, and equitable. For more, check out “Learn a new language for 2022, how about Early Modern Irish?” on the RTÉ website. Congratulations to Prof. Kane!
Ph.D. Candidate David Evans Reflects on War in Afghanistan
UConn PhD candidate David L. Evans has written an insightful article in response to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which can be found on pages 48-51 of the latest issue of Passport, The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) Review. In “The United States Did Not Go to War in Afghanistan,” Evans, who served in the U.S. Marines between 2002-2010 was stationed in Afghanistan in 2008, describes the political and civic meanings of the U.S. military presence in Central Asia. In so doing, Evans brings into question what determines and qualifies as military conflict. Evans writes, “Put bluntly, over the last twenty years the involvement of most Americans when it came to Afghanistan and the wider wars on terror centered on performance and ritual. Honoring the troops and veterans remains the hollowed-out civic religion of the country.”
This article is a must-read. A job well done!
Alum Jorell Meléndez-Badillo Interviewed by The Abusable Past
Recent UConn History PhD graduate, Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, details the intricacies of the labor movement in Puerto Rico alongside questions of race, gender, and knowledge production in an interview with the online collective, The Abusable Past.
The interview is based on his his first book, The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico (2021), which chronicles how a group of self-educated workers theorized liberation in the wake of U.S. occupation and amidst the changing conditions and terms of exploitation. This interview is an insightful foray into the cultural landscape of labor politics in Puerto Rico. Congratulations on a groundbreaking book and fantastic interview!
Interview is here:
Undergraduate Honors Student Spotlight: Arieta Jakaj
UConn ’21 graduate Arieta Jakaj worked with UConn History Professor Ken Gouwens on their senior thesis. Their project traces the intellectual history of the Renaissance and ancient Greece musical forms. Exciting work!
Arieta Jakaj, “Cosmic Harmony and the Death of Music: Florentine Music Theory and Its Influences During the Late 16th Century (1573-1587)”
Thesis Advisor: Ken Gouwens
The leaders of Florence’s late Renaissance musical scene — the Florentine Camerata or Camerata de’ Bardi (1573-1587) — believed that music in their own time was dying. To help remedy this, they wanted to bring back Ancient Greek musical forms and theories. Did the Renaissance music masters of late-16th Century Florence know that they could never truly replicate the legendary musical past of Ancient Greece? It is clear from the writings of theorists in Cinquecento Italy that they were very aware of their limitations; Ancient Greek music could never be fully replicated. However, the members of the Florentine Camerata still reflected on Ancient times and sought to pull the past to their present. The Camerata’s focus on the past seemed to represent an ever-present need, a longing, for the past to be real and palpable sonically in Cinquecento Italy. Out of this arose a more formidable question: With little music documentation and notation left from Ancient Greece, separated by a span of over a millennium and a half, why did these musicians of the Italian Renaissance decide to revitalize Ancient forms, knowing they could never achieve exactly what the surviving literature promised? During my investigation, I intend to explore the key Greek musical thought that survived from Ancient times and which aspects of this thought appealed to the Camerata. Furthermore, I shall analyze the debates that ruled the Camerata’s discussion and the results of their attempts to recapture the sound of Ancient Greece. It is my intention to evaluate the validity of the conclusion that I have come to during my research, which is that the intellectuals of the Florentine Camerata were concerned with the power of music to develop the soul and wanted to imitate the Ancient Greeks to capture the power of that influence, all while still experimenting and testing the boundaries of Renaissance music.