Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur geläufigen Beschreibung de... more Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur geläufigen Beschreibung der Pattsituation zwischen den beiden Supermächten USA und UdSSR. Obschon die Forschung hierzu in den letzten Jahren neues Terrain erschlossen hat, wurde der semantische Kern des Konflikts – die Metapher der Kälte – bisher kaum ausgelotet. Das aktuelle Jahrbuch versucht, diese Lücke zu schließen, indem es die Frage stellt, wie die Kälte in unterschiedlichen militärischen, politischen, wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Bereichen des Kalten Krieges mobilisiert wurde und damit zum tatsächlichen und imaginierten Konflikt beitrug. Der Band enthält Beiträge etwa zu einer geheimen U-Boot-Werft im rauen Norden der Sowjetunion, zur U.S.-amerikanischen Militärbasis »Camp Century« im Packeis Grönlands und zur raumfahrtsmedizinischen Forschung zur perfekten Temperierung von Astronautenkörpern. Neben diesen Temperaturexplorationen an multiplen »frontiers« des Kalten Krieges geht der Band auch den Resonanzen der Kälte in Gesellschaftstheorie, Literatur, Film und materieller Kultur nach.
Memories of Belonging is a three-generation oral-history study of the offspring of southern I... more Memories of Belonging is a three-generation oral-history study of the offspring of southern Italians who migrated to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1913.
Supplemented with the interviewees’ private documents and working from U.S. and Italian archives, Christa Wirth documents a century of transatlantic migration, assimilation, and later-generation self-identification. Her research reveals how memories of migration, everyday life, and ethnicity are passed down through the generations, altered, and contested while constituting family identities.
The fact that not all descendants of Italian migrants moved into the U.S. middle class, combined with their continued use of hyphenated identities, points to a history of lived ethnicity and societal exclusion. Moreover, this book demonstrates the extent of forgetting that is required in order to construct an ethnic identity.
The first generation of Filipino social scientists who earned their master's degrees and doctorat... more The first generation of Filipino social scientists who earned their master's degrees and doctorates in anthropology did so at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, in the Philippine Studies Program (PSP).
Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur gelaufigen Beschreibung de... more Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur gelaufigen Beschreibung der Pattsituation zwischen den beiden Supermachten USA und UdSSR. Obschon die Forschung hierzu in den letzten Jahren neues Terrain erschlossen hat, wurde der semantische Kern des Konflikts – die Metapher der Kalte – bisher kaum ausgelotet. Das aktuelle Jahrbuch versucht, diese Lucke zu schliesen, indem es die Frage stellt, wie die Kalte in unterschiedlichen militarischen, politischen, wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Bereichen des Kalten Krieges mobilisiert wurde und damit zum tatsachlichen und imaginierten Konflikt beitrug. Der Band enthalt Beitrage etwa zu einer geheimen U-Boot-Werft im rauen Norden der Sowjetunion, zur U.S.-amerikanischen Militarbasis »Camp Century« im Packeis Gronlands und zur raumfahrtsmedizinischen Forschung zur perfekten Temperierung von Astronautenkorpern. Neben diesen Temperaturexplorationen an multiplen »frontiers« des Kalten Krieges geht der Band auch d...
Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences, 2018
In the 1950s and 1960s scholars from the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila created s... more In the 1950s and 1960s scholars from the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila created social scientific knowledge that helped establish the Peace Corps as a Cold War institution in the Philippines. Central were the social scientists at the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila University who established a knowable postcolonial subject: "the Filipino," which resulted from their research on Philippine values. In this context, the Ateneo/Chicago social scientists developed the "SIR," the "smooth interpersonal relation" model that entails the notion that Filipinos and Filipinas particularly valued this nonconfrontational skill set among people. The SIR model was taught by social science experts to early Peace Corps volunteers as they prepared for their assignments in the Philippines. The article shows how the SIR model could cause distress and confusion as it was applied by Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines.
Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur geläufigen Beschreibung de... more Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur geläufigen Beschreibung der Pattsituation zwischen den beiden Supermächten USA und UdSSR. Obschon die Forschung hierzu in den letzten Jahren neues Terrain erschlossen hat, wurde der semantische Kern des Konflikts – die Metapher der Kälte – bisher kaum ausgelotet. Das aktuelle Jahrbuch versucht, diese Lücke zu schließen, indem es die Frage stellt, wie die Kälte in unterschiedlichen militärischen, politischen, wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Bereichen des Kalten Krieges mobilisiert wurde und damit zum tatsächlichen und imaginierten Konflikt beitrug. Der Band enthält Beiträge etwa zu einer geheimen U-Boot-Werft im rauen Norden der Sowjetunion, zur U.S.-amerikanischen Militärbasis »Camp Century« im Packeis Grönlands und zur raumfahrtsmedizinischen Forschung zur perfekten Temperierung von Astronautenkörpern. Neben diesen Temperaturexplorationen an multiplen »frontiers« des Kalten Krieges geht der Band auch den Resonanzen der Kälte in Gesellschaftstheorie, Literatur, Film und materieller Kultur nach.
Memories of Belonging is a three-generation oral-history study of the offspring of southern I... more Memories of Belonging is a three-generation oral-history study of the offspring of southern Italians who migrated to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1913.
Supplemented with the interviewees’ private documents and working from U.S. and Italian archives, Christa Wirth documents a century of transatlantic migration, assimilation, and later-generation self-identification. Her research reveals how memories of migration, everyday life, and ethnicity are passed down through the generations, altered, and contested while constituting family identities.
The fact that not all descendants of Italian migrants moved into the U.S. middle class, combined with their continued use of hyphenated identities, points to a history of lived ethnicity and societal exclusion. Moreover, this book demonstrates the extent of forgetting that is required in order to construct an ethnic identity.
The first generation of Filipino social scientists who earned their master's degrees and doctorat... more The first generation of Filipino social scientists who earned their master's degrees and doctorates in anthropology did so at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, in the Philippine Studies Program (PSP).
Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur gelaufigen Beschreibung de... more Der »Kalte Krieg« wurde in der zweiten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zur gelaufigen Beschreibung der Pattsituation zwischen den beiden Supermachten USA und UdSSR. Obschon die Forschung hierzu in den letzten Jahren neues Terrain erschlossen hat, wurde der semantische Kern des Konflikts – die Metapher der Kalte – bisher kaum ausgelotet. Das aktuelle Jahrbuch versucht, diese Lucke zu schliesen, indem es die Frage stellt, wie die Kalte in unterschiedlichen militarischen, politischen, wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Bereichen des Kalten Krieges mobilisiert wurde und damit zum tatsachlichen und imaginierten Konflikt beitrug. Der Band enthalt Beitrage etwa zu einer geheimen U-Boot-Werft im rauen Norden der Sowjetunion, zur U.S.-amerikanischen Militarbasis »Camp Century« im Packeis Gronlands und zur raumfahrtsmedizinischen Forschung zur perfekten Temperierung von Astronautenkorpern. Neben diesen Temperaturexplorationen an multiplen »frontiers« des Kalten Krieges geht der Band auch d...
Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences, 2018
In the 1950s and 1960s scholars from the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila created s... more In the 1950s and 1960s scholars from the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila created social scientific knowledge that helped establish the Peace Corps as a Cold War institution in the Philippines. Central were the social scientists at the University of Chicago and the Ateneo de Manila University who established a knowable postcolonial subject: "the Filipino," which resulted from their research on Philippine values. In this context, the Ateneo/Chicago social scientists developed the "SIR," the "smooth interpersonal relation" model that entails the notion that Filipinos and Filipinas particularly valued this nonconfrontational skill set among people. The SIR model was taught by social science experts to early Peace Corps volunteers as they prepared for their assignments in the Philippines. The article shows how the SIR model could cause distress and confusion as it was applied by Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines.
This three-generation oral history study offers insight into why descendants of Italian migrants ... more This three-generation oral history study offers insight into why descendants of Italian migrants to the United States still choose hyphenated identities today. The research project shows how the meaning of Italianness shifts among the interviewees depending on class affiliation: among the middle-class offspring the use of the hyphen can be understood mainly as a reaction to the experienced pressure to give in to Anglo conformity. Among the blue-collar, urban progeny, Italianness expresses itself as a combination of an experienced ethnic environment on the one hand and a symbolic ethnicity on the other.
Memories of Belonging: Descendants of Italian Migrants to the United States, 1884-Present, 2015
Italian Americans as the Poster Children of the Immigrant Paradigm? Lecturing at Harvard Universi... more Italian Americans as the Poster Children of the Immigrant Paradigm? Lecturing at Harvard University in April 2011, Ngai asserted1 that the concept of the United States as a "nation of immigrants,"2 with its implied immigrant paradigm, is applicable to the experience of white ethnic migrants of southern and eastern Europe who were incorporated into society and experienced social mobility. However, Ngai stated, their experience was a unique phenomenon: white ethnics profited from conditions other groups, such as Asians, could not enjoy. Namely, they benefited from the creation of the welfare state through government support between the 1930s and 1960s in the form of the New Deal, as well as the GI Bill, Medicare, and Medicaid. These circumstances, together with the post-World War II economic boom, elevated the descendants of white immigrants into the middle class. These conditions for the children and grandchildren of white immigrants are, thus, not applicable to other ("nonwhite") groups. Ngai concluded that the experience of white ethnics was not the norm, it was the exception. I suggest, based on my empirical research together with insight acquired from secondary literature, that even the Italian success story can only hold true if one ignores a large piece of national and international history. Firstly, the coerced Americanization experience-most grotesquely implemented through the lynching of Italians in the South, West, and Midwest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,3 together with their prolonged exclusion from Anglo-Saxon society-has left a very heavy footprint on Italian-American consciousness. Hence, an identification with Italianness might go beyond representing merely a safe way to be ethnic or a reaction to the civil rights movement (though both are elementary factors). Italianness for many descendants, among them Beatrice, Andrew, Sandra, and their sister, comes with painful memories of discrimination. Making it in America the way Andrew, Sandra, and Antonella understood it did not come easy-as it did for other descendants of Italian Americans. As Fred Gardaphé states:
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Books by Christa Wirth
Der Band enthält Beiträge etwa zu einer geheimen U-Boot-Werft im rauen Norden der Sowjetunion, zur U.S.-amerikanischen Militärbasis »Camp Century« im Packeis Grönlands und zur raumfahrtsmedizinischen Forschung zur perfekten Temperierung von Astronautenkörpern. Neben diesen Temperaturexplorationen an multiplen »frontiers« des Kalten Krieges geht der Band auch den Resonanzen der Kälte in Gesellschaftstheorie, Literatur, Film und materieller Kultur nach.
Supplemented with the interviewees’ private documents and working from U.S. and Italian archives, Christa Wirth documents a century of transatlantic migration, assimilation, and later-generation self-identification. Her research reveals how memories of migration, everyday life, and ethnicity are passed down through the generations, altered, and contested while constituting family identities.
The fact that not all descendants of Italian migrants moved into the U.S. middle class, combined with their continued use of hyphenated identities, points to a history of lived ethnicity and societal exclusion. Moreover, this book demonstrates the extent of forgetting that is required in order to construct an ethnic identity.
Papers by Christa Wirth
Der Band enthält Beiträge etwa zu einer geheimen U-Boot-Werft im rauen Norden der Sowjetunion, zur U.S.-amerikanischen Militärbasis »Camp Century« im Packeis Grönlands und zur raumfahrtsmedizinischen Forschung zur perfekten Temperierung von Astronautenkörpern. Neben diesen Temperaturexplorationen an multiplen »frontiers« des Kalten Krieges geht der Band auch den Resonanzen der Kälte in Gesellschaftstheorie, Literatur, Film und materieller Kultur nach.
Supplemented with the interviewees’ private documents and working from U.S. and Italian archives, Christa Wirth documents a century of transatlantic migration, assimilation, and later-generation self-identification. Her research reveals how memories of migration, everyday life, and ethnicity are passed down through the generations, altered, and contested while constituting family identities.
The fact that not all descendants of Italian migrants moved into the U.S. middle class, combined with their continued use of hyphenated identities, points to a history of lived ethnicity and societal exclusion. Moreover, this book demonstrates the extent of forgetting that is required in order to construct an ethnic identity.