Registration
Reception will run from 3:30pm to 4:00pm, the talk will begin at 4:00pm
In this talk, Julia Irwin (T. Harry Williams Professor of History, Louisiana State University) will discuss the history and politics of U.S. foreign disaster assistance during the 20th century. Drawing on her recent book Catastrophic Diplomacy, she will discuss how the U.S. government, military, and American NGOs have historically responded to major natural disasters abroad, and the diplomatic, strategic, and moral motivations that guided those efforts. She will also recount the histories of several major humanitarian operations during the early Cold War era, illustrating these themes and arguments in vivid detail.
Find the Link to the book for the discussion: Catastrophic Diplomacy
Speaker
Julia F. Irwin is the T. Harry Williams Professor of History at Louisiana State University. Her research focuses on the politics of humanitarian assistance in 20th century U.S. foreign relations, international history, and medical history, in the context of both armed conflicts and disasters stemming from natural hazards. She has also published more than twenty journal articles and book chapters on the histories of U.S. foreign aid, international humanitarianism, and medical relief. Her work has appeared in such journals as Diplomatic History, The Bulletin of the History of Medicine, First World War Studies, Isis, and the Journal of American History, and in volumes published by Oxford and Cambridge University Presses and Georg Editeur. Recently, she became a founding editor of the Journal of Disaster Studies. Aimed at disaster researchers across the humanities and social sciences, this international journal seeks to advance interpretive theory, methods, and empirical research on hazards, disasters, and humanitarian governance globally.
Irwin is a founding co-editor of the book series InterConnections: The Global 20th Century, published by University of North Carolina Press, and a founding co-editor of Journal of Disaster Studies, published by University of Pennsylvania Press.
About the International History Seminar
If you are interested in attending this semester’s events and joining the International History Seminar, please send an email confirming your interest to the Hayes Chair Graduate Research Associate, Cam Givens, at hayeschairgra@osu.edu, and you will be included on the mailing list going forward. Select materials can only be pre-circulated to those who have signed up.
