RIAS International PhD Seminar (Spring 2026) – Report
From Wednesday, June 17, to Friday, June 19, 2026, the RIAS hosted the Spring edition of our biannual International PhD seminar. The program started with a reception on Wednesday evening to welcome all participants to Middelburg. The seminar began on Thursday morning with a panel on Environmental Contestation and Opposing Ideologies in American Politics, chaired by Gaetano Di Tommaso (RIAS). During this session, PhD candidates Annamaria Haden (University of Tennessee), Baruch Gilinsky (University of Oxford) and Max Schiersner (LMU Munich) presented their ongoing research on environmentalism in relation to protest movements, urban infrastructure, and political culture.
After lunch, the second panel of the seminar on Gender, Sexuality and Personhood in Modern America was chaired by Jessie Morgan-Owens (Leiden University). Đỗ Thảo Nhi (University of Giessen), Anna Kleiman (University of Amsterdam), and Roseanne Hurst (University of East Anglia) shared their work on representations of racialized masculinity in contemporary literature, the derivatization of women in Playboy magazine, and the development and contestation of sexual normativity in 1950s California.
To conclude the second day of the seminar, participants were offered a tour of the RIAS, during which they learned about the archival resources and funding opportunities available at the institute, followed by a city tour past several important historic sites in Middelburg. The day ended with a group dinner.
The final day of the seminar started with a panel on Negotiating Authority: Federal, State and Local Governance in the U.S., chaired by Damian Pargas (RIAS/Leiden University). During this session, Lauren Jarnach (University of Oxford), Jake Wolff (Temple University) and Henry Jacob (Yale University) presented research on different sites of governmental contestation, respectively focusing on antebellum state formation, New Deal infrastructure projects, and military and scientific interests in Arctic policy.
The program concluded with a research workshop by visiting scholar Emmanuel Destenay (Sorbonne University), during which he presented his new research project on American pacifism during World War I. This session was also attended by colleagues from Leiden University. Destenay’s presentation was followed by a fruitful discussion of divergent interpretations of pacifism in the early twentieth century and their implications for transatlantic relations.
The RIAS extends its thanks to all presenters and chairs for making the seminar a success and looks forward to welcoming the next cohort in November 2026!
The following is a full list of all participants and their PhD research topics:
- Annamaria Haden (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Operation Crossroads: The Animal Sacrifice at Bikini Atoll
- Baruch Gilinsky (University of Oxford), Homeless City Government: San Francisco City Hall, 1871-1899
- Max Schiersner (Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität), Religious Conservative Movements, Environmentalism, and American Political Culture from 1945 to 1970
- Đỗ Thảo Nhi (University of Giessen), Power Dynamics of Asian American Masculinities In Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown
- Anna Kleiman (University of Amsterdam), Rabbit Season: Non-Scandalous Rape Logic in 1970s Playboy
- Roseanne Hurst (University of East Anglia), Revolution or Evolution? Educated White Women and Sexual Behavior in California, 1948-1963
- Lauren Jarnach (University of Oxford), The Written Republic: Textual Federalism and the Materiality of State Formation
- Jake Wolff (Temple University), Superhighways, 1929-1938
- Henry Jacob (Yale University), Ink Spills: The Drafting of an American Arctic, 1984-1989
A link to the full program can be found here.
