History of the American South

Module overview
This module focuses upon the institution of slavery from its origins in the colonial South to its collapse during the American Civil War. It explores the growth of the plantation system, the changing nature of the master-slave relationship, and the emergence of a distinctive African American culture. The module aims to provide a detailed understanding of the slave experience and of the impact of slavery on the society and culture of the Old South as well as an appreciation of the continuing sensitivity surrounding the legacy of the South’s ‘peculiar institution’.

El estudio analiza las características de los niños ingresados en la Casa de Huér- fanos entre 1898 y 1923, contextualizándolas históricamente, explicitando las razones del abandono según los adultos y delimitando los significados de la niñez . También aborda la discusión médica sobre la mortalidad infantil en la Casa de Huérfanos, la que permitió, en parte, el surgimiento de la pediatría chilena . Además, desarrolla las experiencias de los párvulos durante la admisión al recinto, condicionadas por el desarraigo y la pobreza . Las conclusiones tratan el proceso de medicalización infantil a través de la institución .
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The study analyzes the characteristics of those children that were admitted to the orphanage «Casa de Huérfanos» between 1898 and 1923, contextualizing them historically, explaining the reasons for abandonment given by the adults and demarcating the meanings of childhood . It also tackles the medical discussion on infant mortality in the «Casa de Huérfanos» which allowed, in part, the emergence of Chilean pediatrics . In addition, the experiences of kindergartens during the admission, conditioned by uprooting and poverty . The conclusions deal with the process of medicalization via the institution .

20–22 January 2022, Vienna

Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Klaus Barbie, and Erich Priebke: These names are exemplary of the Nazi criminals who found refuge in South America after 1945. There, they either remained untroubled or were only made accountable for their crimes many years later. Investigations into their whereabouts in South America – when they were still alive – were conducted painstakingly among others by Simon Wiesenthal as well as the Klarsfelds. Since then, many publications by historians and journalists have dealt with the biographies of individual former Nazis (with the focus always lying on men), their escape routes, their acceptance into their destination countries, and partly also with their political activities in their new homelands. Aside from the prominent perpetrators and their thoroughly researched biographies, there were numerous other cases of more or less influential (former) Nazis and Nazi sympathisers who ended up in Argentina, Chile, and other South American countries. Their life trajectories and professional as well as private activities in their new homes have hardly been subject to systematic research to date. Their biographies and their new lives in South America will therefore be the focus of this workshop. Thereby, we aim to identify lacuna and potential for further studies in existing research. The workshop will focus on the following topics:

(1) Research Questions, Sources, and Archives
(2) Forms, Paths, and Organisations of Flight
(3) Arrival, Establishment, and Contact Zones
(4) Interactions between the German-Speaking Groups
(5) Contacts at Home and Return Migration

We invite researchers to deal with these questions and related questions in 20-minute presentations. Please send your abstracts (maximum length: 250-300 words) as well as a short CV (maximum length: 50-100 words) in German or English by 30 June 2021 to [email protected] with the subject header “CfP – NS in Südamerika nach 1945”.

This event is hosted by the Institute for Contemporary History at Vienna University and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI), in cooperation with the Department of History at Salzburg University (Prof. Margit Reiter), the Ibero-American Institute (Dr. Sandra Carreras), and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Concept: Dr. Linda Erker, Institute for Contemporary History, Vienna University

This dissertation examines the role of African American high school teachers and students in the struggle for equitable education from 1926-1974 in Charlottesville, Virginia. I argue that teachers and students sought culturally relevant and equitable education through their activism within and beyond the classroom. To be clear, not all African American teachers and students engaged in activism and protest. However, rather than dismiss a whole swath of people due to the inaction of some individuals, this project aims to recover the voices and experiences of these teachers and students. Part of examining the action and inaction of African American teachers and students during this time period requires placing their actions within a larger context. Accordingly, while the project centers its focus on teachers and students, it also provides salient political, social, and economic commentary on the issues of the era.

This dissertation examines the role of African American high school teachers and students in the struggle for equitable education from 1926-1974 in Charlottesville, Virginia. I argue that teachers and students sought culturally relevant and equitable education through their activism within and beyond the classroom. To be clear, not all African American teachers and students engaged in activism and protest. However, rather than dismiss a whole swath of people due to the inaction of some individuals, this project aims to recover the voices and experiences of these teachers and students. Part of examining the action and inaction of African American teachers and students during this time period requires placing their actions within a larger context. Accordingly, while the project centers its focus on teachers and students, it also provides salient political, social, and economic commentary on the issues of the era. Until recently, the roles played by teachers and students in the Civil R...

Schweiger shows that rural people in the American South had access to a remarkable variety of things to read in the decades before the Civil War.  Drawing on the writings of four young women who lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Schweiger shows how free and enslaved people learned to read, and that they wrote and spoke poems, songs, stories, and religious doctrines that were circulated by speech and in print.  The assumption that slavery and reading are incompatible--which has its origins in the eighteenth century--has obscured a rich literate tradition at the heart of American culture.