PhDs

Neo-irredentism and the Fascist past in post-1945 Italy

Ludovic Brunot | [email protected]

My PhD project investigates the ways in which neo-irredentism developed as a political and cultural ideology in post-1945 Italy, and how it shaped Italian identity and far-right politics. “Neo-irredentism” built on Italian irredentism, a 19th-century nationalist movement geared towards “redeeming” Italian-speaking regions from foreign domination. Whereas traditional irredentism had centred on territorial claims, the new movement of neo-irredentism revolved around historical justice, cultural legacy, and remembrance. It emerged after Italy had ceded eastern Adriatic territory to Yugoslavia, prompting the emigration of Italian-speaking populations from Istria and Dalmatia. The exiled – Esuli – reframed the history of their “lost” native lands as a national trauma, silencing the history of fascist domination and violence, and foregrounding a dichotomy between civilized Italianità and barbaric Slavism. This narrative glorified the fallen Italian soldiers of the Second World War, who, through their “sacrifice”, had sanctified the eastern Adriatic as Italian land.

Neo-irredentism evolved into a powerful cultural and political framework. It shaped Italian political culture by promoting the public remembrance both of the “exodus” and the Foibe massacres – the latter committed by Yugoslav partisans against Italians and fascist collaborators (“foibe” refers to karst sinkholes into which victims were thrown towards the end of the war, 1943-45). Italian governments and far-right groups pursued such memory politics as part of nationalist agendas. Imbued by anti-communism and anti-Slavism, these agendas appealed to Cold War narratives which depicted Slavic communities as a communist menace. Narratives of victimization were eagerly adopted by far-right movements, and later influenced mainstream parties, which integrated neo-irredentist ideas into wider political discourses, thus reshaping Italian nationalism. By the 1990s and 2000s, neo-irredentist discourse gained significant political traction, and even received state recognition through the creation of the National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe (first observed in 2005).

The Declaration of America’s Cold Civil War: A Historical Investigation into the Political Philosophy of the Heritage Foundation 1973-2016

Charlotte Disley | [email protected]

The Heritage Foundation is an American think-tank that began publishing Mandates for Republican presidential candidates in the 1980s and has a huge influence over republican strategy today. While Project 2025, or Mandate IX, has harboured more coverage than Mandates before, the Mandate is still relatively unknown outside of political circles.

This PhD investigates the intellectual and social history that has led to Heritage’s political philosophy and how their policies have influenced government in the USA and the USA’s relationships with other countries. Following the beginning of the Reagan Administration, the policies in Mandate I passed into law at a 60% success rate. Whilst not majorly referenced in secondary literature, some academic journals in the 1980s demonstrate the significance of Mandate I such as through referencing defunding in different areas of the federal government under the Reagan administration using Heritage inspired policy. More recently, Mandate VII, which was published after Trump won the 2016 election, was heavily implemented by the first Trump Administration. The project therefore also has a strong emphasis on the implementation of public policy and how they have affected US citizens and the rest of the world if applicable. The nine Mandates cover 40 years of republican political thought. Other major publications include guides to interpreting the Constitution (Heritage Guide to the Constitution 1st and 2nd Editions) and their regularly published articles on their website, which discuss current socio-economic problems in the USA. This project aims to shed more light onto Heritage’s influence in American political thought and governance through analysing the cultural and intellectual context in which it has existed and evolved within.

‘Purifying’ The Nordic Space: Germany, Scandinavia, and Transnational Eugenics, ca. 1905-1940.

Olivier Feis | [email protected]

While the passing of the Nuremberg Race Laws by the Nazi government in September of 1935 has long been considered the infamous climax of the institutionalization of European Eugenics principles, the focus on Nuremberg has deflected attention away from analyses of Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. Indeed, laws aimed at strengthening the nation’s “racial hygiene” became public policy in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark before they reached their macabre epitome in Hitler’s Germany. Both Norway and Sweden passed laws allowing for the sterilization of “genetic undesirables” in 1934, while Denmark did so in 1929, a full 6 years before Nuremberg. These chronological similarities, together with the documented adherence of numerous prominent Scandinavian eugenicists to the internationalist Nordicism movement, suggest that far from having occurred in isolation from one another, the eugenic impulses that manifested themselves in Scandinavia and Germany during the inter-war period were the result of a shared philosophy of, and socio-scientific approach to, Eugenics.

The purpose of this project is to investigate the ways in which transnational exchanges amongst the scientific communities of the Nordic countries and Germany contributed to the formulation, evolution, and public implementation of Eugenics principles. Theoretically grounded in Pierre-Yves Saunier’s concept of “circulation” of ideas and knowledge, the study seeks to establish clear links between and amongst German and Scandinavian eugenicists, identify the ways in which they cooperated, and evaluate the impact of these collaborative efforts on their respective scientific fields as well as on public policies in their respective countries. Additionally, it will evaluate the extent to which distinct national characters affected the implementation of eugenics principles. The study takes as its working hypothesis that while the pursuits of eugenics on a scientific level resulted from transnational exchanges, its ultimate implementation in terms of public policy resulted from the prioritization of national considerations.

Mourning with the ‘force of history’ – National Days of Remembrance in the UK and Germany

James Krull | [email protected]

National days of remembrance connect selected versions of the remembered past with current ideas and goals for the future. They bridge the gap between the layers of time and connect different levels of publicity: Grief as an essential, first and foremost individual, intimate emotion, is being more or less successfully scaled up and thus transferred publicly onto the collective. On a macrosocial scale or when the identity of the dead, the scale or the political context of the suffered loss is of national importance, this is mostly happening with the state itself involved. Thus, national days of remembrance can be a means of visualizing the powers at play in the politics of history on a national level.

This project examines the political, cultural and emotional mechanisms, languages and customs behind national acts of commemoration by looking at national days of remembrance since the end of the Second World War. Conducting an asymmetrical transnational comparison between Germany and the UK, it aims to provide an updated, theoretically based and transnational perspective on national days of remembrance. The period of investigation stretches from the end of the Second World War up to the present. The threshold of 1990 is explicitly crossed, because the increasing temporal distance of the commemorating collective to the object of remembrance – i.e. those, who are being commemorated – alters the working mechanisms of commemorative acts and should thus be taken into account.

There are various ways in which a commemorative event can be ‘national’ – the focus of remembrance, the nationally charged commemorative narrative, the organizational framework and scope, the organizer’s claim, the involvement of state, the outreach, the symbolism, the accessibility, the critical reception as well as the emotional connection with the wider public. All these points give rise to the fact that national days of remembrance are an essential part of the cultural memory of a society and a point of crystallization for a state’s relationship with its past and therefore with itself. Due to their annual repetition, they are an ideal tool for highlighting political, cultural, and social change.

East African Intellectual History and the Cold War Imagination (1961-1991)

Fiachna McCarren | [email protected]

The East African nation-states may have inherited their borders, but Indigenous leaders, activists and intellectuals looked beyond them to challenge ideas of spatial order. They did so at various scales, from local, to regional, to global. From the end of British rule in Tanganyika in December 1961 – with Uganda and Kenya following suit in 1962/63 – to the end of the Cold War in 1991, this project seeks to unearth previously-overlooked visions of spatial order and dissect their relationship with political thought. Inspired by earlier works which traced postcolonial imaginaries as alternative or abandoned ‘routes out of empire’, the project aims to look beyond narratives of the inevitability of the nation-state.

The project will explore the contested meanings, political uses, and transnational circulations of a range of spatial imaginaries in their co-produced relationality. Despite an extensive literature on the origins of ‘the West’ as a socio-political concept, no such study has been undertaken in the context of African political thought. Similarly, major edited volumes have progressed the study of spatial imaginaries, and yet, they rarely include case studies that cover African regions. It is the intent of this project to champion voices that have fallen outside of the canon. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative research methods (including text mining and geo-visualisation), the project will focus primarily on the corpus of published writings by East African intellectuals.

Holocaust Education and Remembrance Culture in Scotland, 1970 to the Present

Ryan Phillips | [email protected]

On the outskirts of the Kirkcaldy War Memorial Gardens, facing out onto the busy Bennochy Road, stands a small, weather-worn monument. At a glance, it is unassuming, and its meaning unclear. Only by reading the small plaque adorning it can we begin to understand its meaning and significance: it is a memorial dedicated to the millions of victims of the Holocaust, and a testament of ‘a local determination to challenge racism and intolerance’. It was unveiled in January 2007, by Gordon Brown in a ceremony which marked the beginning of a three-week long Anne Frank + You Festival, organized by twenty high school students from three high schools in Fife. The festival sought to raise awareness about the Holocaust (particularly among young people) by offering a range of exhibits and activities. It was a remarkable success, receiving £245,176 in funding and attracting over 8,000 people from across Scotland.

The festival concluded with a candlelight procession for peace on Holocaust Memorial Day. Today, only the monument remains. The four circular symbols carved into the wood allegedly tells viewers that ‘[t]his is a safe place’ in a symbolic language created by refugee communities across Europe and America. Yet, it is unclear if this language even existed. Regardless, brief observations show that the monument fails to draw attention. I was only informed of its existence in 2023, despite having visited Kirkcaldy hundreds of times, passing the monument at least twice on each visit! Even when it does attract attention, it can only serve as a reminder of the victims and values it represents if one pays attention long enough to read the plaque (which busy commuters rarely have the time to do). It thus remains largely forgotten on the periphery of a garden dedicated to the memory of those who fought and died in the world wars; as perhaps the Holocaust could be said to stand on the periphery of Scotland’s memory of the Second World War today.

This monument is only one example of how the Holocaust is remembered and commemorated in Scotland. The topic of Scottish Holocaust memory has, until very recently, been severely neglected within the broader field of British Holocaust memory studies, which has focused almost exclusively on developments and contemporary challenges in England. The overwhelming focus on English Holocaust memory is somewhat understandable. The majority of Holocaust memorials, museum exhibits, and learning centres are based in England and English Holocaust education predates its Scottish equivalent by a decade.

But, my project will contribute to remedying the lack of understanding about Scottish Holocaust by analysing the evolution of Holocaust memory in Scotland since 1970. Some of the questions I seek to address in the project are: why did the Holocaust return to prominence in Scottish (and British) historical memory in the late 1970s after being marginalised in the aftermath of the Second World War? How has Holocaust memory evolved since the 1970s? How is the Holocaust discussed and represented in popular culture, education, monuments, and museums? Why did the introduction of Holocaust Memorial Day herald the introduction of Holocaust education into Scottish schools in 2001? How is Scotland’s relationship with the Holocaust explored? How is this relationship incorporated into Scotland’s broader history (particularly its imperial legacy)? I anticipate that throughout the project I will be drawing similarities and overlaps between the developments and challenges in England and Scotland – for example the impact of Steven Spielberg’s widely acclaimed film Schindler’s List. However, I will focus on highlighting the unique features of Scottish Holocaust memory and how a distinct Scottish Holocaust memory narrative has developed and been impacted by Scotland’s political and cultural environment.

A view on ideology: Margarete Buber-Neumann and the “crisis of liberalism”

Selma Sondern | [email protected]

The project contributes to the discussion of why liberal democracies turn to despotism. Taking a bottom-up, micro-historical approach, it examines the life and ideological development of Margarete Buber-Neumann (1901-1989) to explore how ideology works on the people as “ordinary” intellectual actors. Tracing her biography, understanding her intellectual development and identifying the turning points in her political ideas, allows insights into how Buber-Neumann as an “ordinary” intellectual actor responded to the ideologies of her time, which socio-political, economic and emotional factors encouraged her turn to ideology and how it influenced her behavior. From her case study, the thesis attempts to draw conclusions about what impact individual ideology can have on society as a whole and to what extent liberal democracies turn to despotism based on the will of (a critical mass of) “ordinary” intellectual actors.

Yugoslav-Ethiopian Cooperation in the Context of the Non-Aligned Movement, c.1950-1974

Matevž Rezman Tasič | Matevz Rezman Tasic

The PhD project explores Cold War cooperation between Socialist Yugoslavia and the Ethiopian Empire from the early 1950s to the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution. In this period, Belgrade and Addis Ababa cooperated on several international issues, such as nuclear disarmament, economic development, and opposition to the bipolar division of the Cold War. At the 1961 Belgrade Conference of Non-Aligned States, the Ethiopian and Yugoslav governments became two of the inaugural members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The cooperation between Ethiopia and Yugoslavia also extended into the economic sphere. Bilateral technical assistance agreements enabled Haile Selassie’s government to hire Yugoslav experts, technical institutes, and companies. Among other things, Yugoslavs worked in public administration, oversaw the planning and construction of new industrial enterprises, and provided medical care in Ethiopia. Ethiopian students received scholarships for studies in Yugoslavia. While the trade between the two countries remained small, it likewise expanded during this period.

By exploring the Yugoslav-Ethiopian relations of this period, the project sheds light on Cold War collaboration between non-aligned states. Ethiopian-Yugoslav relations developed before the emergence of the NAM in 1961. NAM developed out of preexisting transnational networks, such as the anticolonial and Afro-Asian solidarity activist networks, and diplomatic networks of states opposing the Cold War divisions. As Belgrade and Addis Ababa played an important part in these networks, their cooperation offers insights into the NAM’s emergence. Both states remained members of the NAM throughout the period under examination. Therefore, the Yugoslav-Ethiopian collaboration shows how the NAM influenced the development of bilateral cooperation between its members. While both Addis Ababa and Belgrade adopted a non-aligned foreign policy and were active members of the NAM, they constructed starkly different domestic political systems. Throughout this period, Yugoslavia was a one-party socialist state, while Ethiopia remained a hereditary monarchy opposed to socialist and communist agitation at home. Thus, the project also explores ensuing contestations and contradictions of such collaboration, as well as how such differences were managed and overcome in the context of NAM. In doing so, it aims to investigate both the governments’ perspectives and the perspectives of Yugoslavs and Ethiopians working on the bilateral projects.

Panagiotis Kondylis: In Search of the View from Nowhere

Sokratis Vekris | [email protected]

British Intellectuals and ‘Western Civilization’, 1880s-1930s 

Yifan Wang | [email protected]

The concepts of ‘the West’ and ‘Western Civilisation’ have become some of the most common political discourses at present, both in the West and the East. The prevalence of such terms could date back to an intellectual context of imperialism in the late nineteenth century. The most recent wave of the popularity of these terms, however, has come since the end of the Cold War. Some political scientists, such as Samuel Huntington and his former student Francis Fukuyama, have started a tendency to see the end of the Cold War, not as a collapse of Soviet totalitarianism, but as a triumph of Western Civilisation. Huntington, in his popular book, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), further predicted the global conflict in the post-Cold War period would appear between civilisations.

This wide application of the concepts of ‘the West’ and ‘Western Civilisation’, however, had not been reflected and criticised until also the 1990s. The recent democratic crisis within Western society and the enduring Russo-Ukrainian War challenged further the historical narrative of the ultimate triumph of Western Civilisation and the political vision of liberal democracy. ‘Western Civilisation’, similar to Benedict Anderson’s description of nationalism as an imagined community, can also be regarded as an established and supra-national self-identity. Not only does this self-identity demonstrate a lasting attempt to unite the heterogeneous peoples of Europe and their worldwide relatives under the same historical narrative, but it also comes up with a political vision to bring the peoples of the world under a unified political framework of liberalism.

This project, therefore, will further investigate the conceptual history of ‘Western Civilisation’ and its affinities with the ideas, such as progress, liberal democracy and Social Darwinism. The research will mainly focus on a few British intellectuals around the turn of the twentieth century, including Social Darwinist Benjamin Kidd, economic historian William Cunningham and positivist historian Francis Sydney Marvin. The wide spread of the concept of ‘Western Civilisation’, however, also implies a transnational potential of this research. The writings of Kidd, for example, were translated into many languages and were widely received by his contemporaries in America, Germany and China.

The Formation of the episcopalis audientia, from the Case of Paul of Samosata to the Theodosian Code, c. 260-438

Chao Xiao | [email protected]

I received my first PhD (Historical Theories and History of Historical Science) in the Fudan University and then I have been an associate professor at Guangxi Normal University in China. Now I am on the journey to seek my second PhD guided by Prof. Caroline Humfress and Dr. Konrad Lawson at the University of St. Andrews. The episcopalis audientia, which is also called the ‘bishop’s hearing’, originated from long-standing practices within Christian communities. The first documented practice is the case of Paul of Samosata, and thus is the starting point for this research. In this case, as is recorded in Eusebius’s Church History, the controversy provoked by Paul’s heretical thoughts gave rise to the presence of ad hoc councils of bishops attended by many bishops and church followers. A final Synod later decided Paul’s excommunication; however, the Church had to seek for the Roman emperor’s official recognition when the Synod’s decision concerning Paul could not be enforced.

A case study could exemplify part of the formation but was not sufficient to present a comprehensive and dynamic historical development. Thus, this research extends across the early formation of episcopalis audientia from 260 to 438, i.e., the period from the case till the Theodosian Code, and covers different aspects such as law, politics, religion, economy, and society. Most contemporary inquiries into episcopalis audientia focus on legal texts, but few have tried to dig into the historical contexts behind these legal texts. For example, in Antioch at the time of Paul of Samosata, there were three main influences, the Church, the Roman Empire, and the Kingdom of Palmyra. The extent of Palmyra’s involvement in the case of Paul deserves to be investigated, but related investigation has been insufficient.

The early formation of episcopalis audientia can be better understood by dint of comparison and contrast. There was a similar legal phenomenon called ChunQiu Adjudication in the Han Dynasty in ancient China (202 BC – 200 AD). This research also intends to exhibit the particularities of episcopalis audientia as well as its formation in the occident by comparing it with ChunQiu Adjudication in ancient China. For example, what are the similarities and differences between the Roman bishops who worked as judges and the Han Confucian judicial officers? Are the social functions of both similar to each other? What were the intentions of the Han emperors and the Roman emperors, respectively, when they employed ChunQiu Adjudication and episcopalis audientia? To what extent did they materialize their ambitions?