The aftermath of the First World War signaled the emergence of a new sense of secularized, internationalist humanitarianism, violent visions of nation-building of an unprecedented scale, and the beginnings of the United States鈥� ascent to global influence. My project, 鈥楩rom (Post)War Humanitarianism to Postwar Development: The Anthropogeography of the Near East Relief and Near East Foundation in 1920s and 1930s Greece,鈥� exists at the intersection of these three historical threads. This summer, I explored the ways in which American humanitarians in Greek Macedonia 鈥� and the people they sought to help 鈥� negotiated various wartime inheritances, from the physical remains of military activity, to discourses on civilization, ethnicity, and religion. I identified attitudes and general perspectives among NER and NEF personnel, traced the trajectories of particular actors whose lives were indicative of wartime continuities, and extracted data for the geospatialization of rural development initiatives in Macedonia. This project builds on Professor Tassos Anastassiadis鈥� previous work regarding transnational aspects of infrastructure development and the physical presence of the Arm茅e d鈥橭rient in Macedonia, mapped out on the digital humanities tool ArmOr GIS.
My intention in seeking out an ARIA project this summer was to put the theory behind my History degree into practice and understand how working historians pursue original research. I was happy to find that the time, resources, and supervision built into this program gave me the support to do exactly that. Having spent so much of my degree behind a computer, I was looking forward to doing archival work with physical material. Visiting the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York and having the opportunity to spend several days flipping through original documents 鈥� photographs, maps, newspaper clippings, internal correspondence, and endless amounts of auditing sheets 鈥� proved both exciting and instructive. During my stay, I also gained a lot of insight into various careers in History by speaking to other visiting researchers and the archivists on staff.
After returning to Montr茅al and taking a more thorough look through the documents I had managed to digitize, however, I felt slightly dejected 鈥� the information I had hoped to find in these files seemed, at first glance, vague, elusive, or wholly absent. I adapted the scope of my research question and committed several weeks to careful study of the narratives afforded in the Near East Foundation records and related secondary literature, eventually landing on an achievable deliverable for this work that lines up neatly with the fundamental questions of this research. I also experienced some medical setbacks, though thanks to the flexible nature of the ARIA and the understanding of my supervisor, I was able to keep on track with my research in spite of this.
Having worked on an ARIA project, I have a fuller appreciation for the way in which my discipline is practiced. I am encouraged by the widening scope of historical research and the people I met this summer who are firm in their commitments to the humanities, and I feel more confident pursuing graduate studies in this field. I would like to thank Mr. Neal Merker and Ms. Anna Stein for this award. These funds made possible my transportation costs to New York, as well as my stay in the wonderful town of Nyack, just across the Hudson River from the Rockefeller Archive Center.
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