Global Awareness

Though my studies center on international conflicts, my work on foreign languages and on international experiences of war have shown me that cultures can have wildly different–and all understandable–reactions to the same events.  I’ve recently had the privilege to study in Dr. David Steigerwald’s Transnational History of WWII in Europe Program (a mouthful, I know), and under his tutelage our cohort has explored Europe’s many national myths surrounding German occupation, as well as the war’s continuing cultural and political ramifications. In that seminar, we try to think across cultural boundaries to understand, for instance, how different nations handled their “collaborators,” what it meant to “collaborate” or “resist” under occupation, and how ordinary people cope with mass murder.  On a point relevant to my military history studies, we also examine the surprising mediocrity, irrationality, and inefficiency of Nazi bureaucrats, despite historical stereotypes of Nazi “efficiency.”  Starting May 8, we will be traveling Europe to apply our understanding of historical myths, national memory, and–lest we forget– heroism in England, France, Poland, and Germany.  A subset of our group will also be travelling to Czechia, Austria, and Italy.  If I am to truly understand European history, I think it necessary to meet today’s Europeans and understand how they handled the greatest calamity in Western history.

It is not only abroad that I have gained and will gain awareness.  My intellectual interests are wide-ranging, even disparate, and so by following my interests studies in history and political science are essentially global.  For example, in studying Russian foreign policy this semester, I came to understand acutely the rationale for Russia’s ostensibly irrational siege mentality and recent aggressiveness.  While I obviously do not approve of Russia’s violations of others’ national sovereignty, a sober consideration of its government’s means and motives shows the path to deescalation much better than grandstanding or stereotyping.  In my French 5401 class covering 300 years of French history, we often examined trans-Atlantic political conversations and how, in part, minor differences in French and American theories of government sent our two countries on two different political paths.  As a personal matter, my studies in French and Russian have also made a huge wealth of beautiful literature and music available to me.

My greatest take-away from my studies thus far is not an insight into philosophy rather than the nature of history (though surprisingly, it is contingent on the smallest things!).  Reinhold Niebuhr said it better than I ever could (though I credit Prof. Gerry Hudson for finding the quote): “Tolerance of people who differ in convictions and habits requires a residual awareness of the complexity of truth and the possibility of opposing views having some light on one or the other facet of a many-sided truth.”

Global understanding fosters the civility which this age desperately lacks.  I look forward to exploring the many “facets” of truth in my historical studies.  After all, the distant past may as well be another country.

Original Inquiry

Though I excitedly await the opportunity to write my senior thesis, I have already written a huge volume of research papers.  Indeed, owing to my majors in history and political science, most of my GPA rides on research.  In my first Autumn at Ohio State, I wrote a paper exploring the demographic diversity, leisure activities, religious convictions, and careers of residents in Birdtown, my father’s childhood neighborhood in Lakewood, Ohio.   That Spring, for History 3501, I dug through the Foreign Relations of the United States archive to describe the personal dynamics and objectives of President Eisenhower’s diplomacy with Germany.   Last semester, in my Russian literature class, I examined the appearance of “Liza” characters in two very different works of Russian literature for a paper which I plan to submit for next year’s Midwest Slavic Conference.  And just a few days ago, as part of the WWII study abroad program, I compiled information on the German soldier’s experience at Normandy and the demise of the Luftwaffe in preparation for a presentation on the Pointe du Hoc, just above Omaha Beach.  Access to Ohio State’s excellent researchers is a privilege, and my writing and analysis has improved just from listening to them (if not their helpful corrections).

However, class papers are not enough “research” alone, and so last Autumn I joined Prof. Elizabeth Bond’s research into the newspapers of pre-Revolutionary France.  By examining what the average literate person was talking about in letters to the editor, she is shedding light on the concerns and daily lives of the Revolution’s eventual participants.  Along with a small group of others, I transcribe letters to the editor from the Journal de Paris, the first French daily newspaper.  Prof. Bond adds each letter to a database of thousands of other letters, and then applies “big data” techniques (network analysis, word frequency, and other, more complex statistical methods) to yield quantitative historical insights.  Next semester, I will be scouring said letters for location names and addresses which can then be mapped.  Who knows what the data will show!  It hope to apply my knowledge of the R programming language and of quantitative historical research methods in my senior thesis, but work like Dr. Bond’s demands data which are not reliably computer-readable, even by optical character recognition, and must be entered manually (as with my transcription work).

Academic Enrichment

This category of the GOALS comes to me naturally as a result of my refusal to specialize in any one area (yet).  History and political science, as major courses of study, mesh well: history provides a wealth lessons which can be applied to modern politics and daily life, and political science’s quantitative methods might help history transcend its qualitative limits.  I have continued my study of French out of love for the language and fascination with the culture: I plan to read l’Etranger by Camus during my plane rides to and from Europe.  My French abilities also mean that French history, using untranslated sources, remains open as a possibility for my thesis.  This semester, I added Russian, not least because I find Russia’s culture and history fascinating.  I also have practical reasons for learning these languages: I dream of one day studying long-term in France, or spending a semester in Saint Petersburg, or teaching English in Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine, or working as a translator in government.  Though I do not plan to minor in Russian, I have studied Russian literature in translation (Russian 2250H) and my second-year writing course (Slavic 2367) will examine the experiences of Eastern European immigrants to the United States.

The process of learning itself drives me.  If I had more time (that is, if I could afford five years of undergraduate), I would gladly take on a third major.  Pursuing a needlessly challenging course of study is my idea of fun.

Leadership Development

In the Autumn of 2017, I began conversations with a friend to found the Scarlet Historical Review, a journal of undergraduate historical research for Buckeyes and by Buckeyes.  Though we are still working on SEO, this online journal has already featured three students’ works and will publish every semester.  Next year, my partner and I hope to professionalize the publication and attain ISSNs for each edition.  By scouring each paper for edits, I believe my own academic writing has become stronger, while the high volume of emails I send relating to SHR has sharpened my professional communication skills.

SHR is the spiritual successor to the Dulles Review, a discontinued publication by OSU’s chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honorary.  This year, I served as Treasurer of our chapter, helping to organize and lead biweekly meetings as well as accounting for our pizza expenditures.  Next year, as President, I hope to revive our statewide student research conference in coordination with SHR, which will publish the work of students selected to present.  Indeed, I plan to make SHR a responsibility of the Zeta Chapter’s leadership and fund its hosting fees independently of the Department of History.

Service Engagement

Regrettably, what with my difficulties in adjusting to life at college and learning time-management on the fly, I have not had the opportunity to join a service organization on campus.  However, I do look forward to continuing my volunteer work at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.  While I have not experienced food insecurity myself, I am only one generation removed from poverty and two generations removed from subsistence farming in the hills near Blacksburg, Virginia.  The stories I hear from those generations of my family have emphasized how easy it is to fall into and be trapped in food insecurity, and I’ve come to enjoy the physical labor of loading and unloading food donations.  Since I will be learning to cook over the summer in preparation for living off-campus, Recipe for Good, a service-based student org on campus, may also fit my convictions.  In any case, I will be stepping up my service engagement before I leave Ohio State.