RIAS International PhD Seminar (Fall 2025) – Report
From Wednesday 26 November to Friday 28 November 2025, the Fall edition of our biannual International PhD seminar took place. After the participants arrived at their hotel, they were welcomed in Middelburg with a drinks reception on Wednesday evening. The program started on Thursday morning with the first session on Gender, Sexuality & the Boundaries of Normality in Modern America, chaired by Jeanine Quené (RIAS). During this session, PhD candidates Eszter D Kovacs (University of Oxford) and Eloise Mattimoe (University of Bristol) presented their research on Cold War ‘normality’, sexuality and NASA’s Project Mercury recruitment process, and the diagnosis of feeblemindedness and homosexuality in reform institutions, respectively.
After a tour of the RIAS, followed by lunch and a Middelburg city tour, the second session on (Re)constructing Political Cultures in the Twenty-First Century took place. During this session, chaired by Jack Thompson (University of Amsterdam), Beer Prakken (University of Groningen) discussed with us his dissertation on the role of humor and play in mobilizing and radicalizing the far right, followed by Karina Cretu’s (University of Bucharest) presentation on the intellectual currents of American conservatism after 2016, after which the session was concluded with a discussion of Alma Topalli’s (University of Münster) topic of gender representation in Newbery award-winning books. The second day of the seminar ended with a joint dinner at Restaurant Cluys.
The third and final session on Friday morning, chaired by Damian Pargas (RIAS/Leiden University), featured discussions on everyday civil rights activism in the Jim Crow South. Chelsea D. McNutt (Cornell University) presented her work on care, joy and the everyday political labor of Birdie Williams, after which Katrina Stack (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) presented her research on preservation of freedom houses in the Mississippi Delta. The session was concluded by Samantha Gowdy (Queen’s University Belfast)’s presentation on the sharecropper activism of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union in Arkansas. Hereafter, an open discussion was held with Damian Pargas and Renata Nowaczewka (Szczecin University) on grant applications and publications. Finally, this edition of the PhD seminar concluded with a shared lunch.
The RIAS would like to thank all the participants and session chairs for this successful PhD seminar. We wish the PhD candidates the best of luck with their research, and look forward to the next edition of the seminar, which will be held on 17-19 June, 2026!
The following is a full list of all participants and their PhD research topics:
- Eszter D Kovacs (University of Oxford) Cold War ‘Normality’”: Sexuality, and the Project Mercury Recruitment Process
- Eloise Mattimoe (University of Bristol) Sexual Development under the Diagnostic Lens: Feeblemindedness and Homosexuality, Napanoch 1919-1930
- Eimeel Castillo (University of Michigan) An Intoxicating Paradise: Prohibition and The American Legation Guard in Nicaragua, 1910-1925
- Beer Prakken (University of Groningen) Humor and Play in Political Discourse: How The Far Right Mobilizes and Radicalizes through Playful Transgression
- Karina Cretu (University of Bucharest) Redefining American Conservatism After 2016: New Intellectual Currents on the Right
- Alma Topalli (University of Münster) Gender Representation in Newberry Award-Winning Books, 2015-2025
- Chelsea D. McNutt (Cornell University) Care, Joy, and Everyday Political Labor: Birdie Williams and the NAACP in Jim Crow South
- Katrina Stack (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) Toward a Spatial Public History of the Civil Rights Movement: Preserving Freedom Houses in the Mississippi Delta
- Samantha Gowdy (Queen’s University Belfast)“Let them join the Union and do something for themselves”: The Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union and Sharecropper Activism in Arkansas
A link to the full program can be found here.
