{"id":2798,"date":"2019-06-26T11:45:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T10:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/history\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2024-11-05T14:38:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T14:38:07","slug":"christian-oconnell-receives-international-history-review-research-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/2019\/06\/26\/christian-oconnell-receives-international-history-review-research-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian O’Connell receives International History Review Research Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\nhistory blog has been relatively quiet of late, somewhat reflective of the busy\nmarking period that characterises May and June of the academic year. However, I\u2019m\nhappy to break the radio silence by reporting the welcome news that I\u2019ve been\nawarded the inaugural International History Review Research Award. This prize\noffers funds to support a research trip and will publish the article that is\nproduced as a result in the journal, The International History Review<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My award is based on a project entitled \u2018Bringing Columbus Home: Memories and Legacies of the African American Presence in Italy during WWII\u2019, which aims to contribute to scholarship on the \u00a0transatlantic experiences of African Americans service personnel during WWII. These experiences were highly significant in shaping attitudes that would be fundamental to the American Civil Rights struggle, fuelling a more robust intolerance of American racism in the post-war era. Indeed, since Richard Dalfiume<\/a> defined WWII as the \u2018forgotten era\u2019 of the black freedom struggle in 1968, considering the effects of the war domestically for American race relations, scholars have also been exploring how the military was an important site of challenge and resistance to racial prejudice. A perfect example is Thomas Guglielmo\u2019s<\/a> recent analysis of a \u2018martial freedom movement,\u2019 which considers the varied ways black GIs challenged the segregationist practices of the Jim Crow army from within. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Soldiers of the 92nd<\/sup> Division with a German POW <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My\nfocus is to expand the study of military experiences beyond direct challenges\nto racism by exploring the significance of relationships between black GIs and\nEuropeans, with a particular focus on Italy. Despite representing a significant\nproportion of the black presence in Europe, including the 92nd Division\u2019s\n\u2018Buffalo Soldiers\u2019 and the \u2018Tuskegee Airmen,\u2019 the Italian campaign has seen\nless scholarly attention compared to the UK, France or Germany, and also been the\nsubject of considerable romanticism, exemplified in popular movies such as Red\nTails <\/em>(2012). However, as I have been discovering through analysis of oral\ntestimonies, black GIs had many other experiences which seem to have been as\ntransformative as serving in the military. These men made the most of their\n\u2018rest and recuperation\u2019 and immersed themselves in Italian culture through\ntourism and relationships with Italians. These were crucial elements of their\ntime in Europe which left important, yet underappreciated marks on the places\nthey visited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Master Sergeant Ellis L. Ross being hosted by an Italian family. Photograph courtesy of the Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next\nyear I will conduct fieldwork in Italy to explore the legacies of the African\nAmerican presence in Italy. Visits to towns along the former \u2018Gothic Line\u2019 In\nnorthern Tuscany and Liguria will allow for an exploration of the ways in which\nthe actions of African Americans have been commemorated and memorialized in the\n21st century. I am planning on conducting interviews with both civilians and\nofficials who presided over commemorative events that have seen many black\nveterans return to Italy. I will also be visiting municipal and state archives\nin Genoa to explore the significance of a public ceremony after the war where\nthousands of liberated citizens witnessed the 92nd Division return the ashes of\nChristopher Columbus to the city in May 1945. For me, this underexplored event\nmarks the extent and importance of socio-cultural exchange between African\nAmerican and Italians during the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Italian newspaper La Stampa<\/em> reporting on the ceremony which saw members of the 92nd Division return the ashes of Christopher Columbus to the city after the end of the war. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The history blog has been relatively quiet of late, somewhat reflective of the busy marking period that characterises May and June of the academic year. However, I\u2019m happy to break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,765,241,767,376,150,770,769,768,417,775,773,766,113,261],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-african-american-history","tag-american","tag-christian-oconnell-2","tag-events","tag-higher-education-2","tag-italy","tag-libraries-and-archives","tag-methodologies","tag-modern","tag-museums","tag-publications","tag-university-of-gloucestershire-alumni","tag-uog","tag-world-war-two","tag-wwii"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3260,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions\/3260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}