Hierarchies of Gender, Nation, and Race: Sexual Encounters in the French Zone of Occupation in Post-WarGermany, 1945-1955

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My doctoral project will analyse the impact of nationalist gender and sexual norms on perceptions and experiences of cross-national sexual contacts in the French Zone of Occupation (ZFO). Considering consensual relationships, sexual violence, and the grey area in between, I will examine whether contemporaries perceived such encounters primarily through the lens of national difference or if the transgression of national boundaries was sidelined by concerns around sexual morality, violence, or race. This research will illuminate how intersectional hierarchies within nations shape international and cross-border relations, adding new perspectives to the study of nationalism, sexuality, and post-conflict societies. The History Department at the University of Nottingham offers a breadth of expertise in gender and conflict history. Dr Adler is the ideal supervisor for this project, given her work on the gendered history of the ZFO, and Professor Harvey (Nottingham) and Dr Hájková (Warwick) will contribute enormous expertise in gender, sexuality, and violence during the Second World War. I am well prepared for my PhD project, which builds on my knowledge of early twentieth-century Frenchand German nationalisms and gender relations. I have experience conducting archival research in the Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin in Strasbourg and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. My46,000-word MA dissertation (awarded grade A) examined negotiations between French civil-military administrators and Alsatian residents following Alsace's re-annexation to France in 1918-1919, analysing legal documents, administrative forms, and appeal letters. It concluded that Alsatians accessed Frenchness through gendered avenues, and proposed the concept of multi-layered nested belonging. My MA research was multilingual, using French and German materials which I translated into and analysed in English. I presented this research at the Graduate Conference in European History in May 2020. Since graduating, I re-worked my thesis into several shorter papers to present at academic conferences in spring 2021, which will be published as conference papers.My interdisciplinary graduate degree expanded my knowledge of historical and social scientific research approaches, critical evaluation of archival practices, ethical considerations of interviews/fieldwork, and researcher reflexivity. I received training in qualitative research methods, employing historical discourse analysis, qualitative content analysis, and biographical approaches in multiple research projects. I am currently exploring quantitative methods and digital history approaches (e.g. data modelling, geographic information systems, network analysis, statistics) during a two-year collaborative project led by ProfessorMalte Rehbein (University of Passau), funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.