Doctoral Dissertation Research: Family Membership, Marital Status, and Citizenship

婚姻状况和传统家庭的成员身份一直是界定一个国家归属感的核心。自美利坚共和国成立之初，理想的公民就被想象成已婚的家庭成员。这个项目将研究国家如何制定法律和政策来规范单身人士的生活，以及作为单身人士的地位如何塑造个人与国家的关系以及他们对公民身份的要求。该项目将重点关注20世纪上半叶美国的五类单身人士：第一次世界大战退伍军人、单身移民、年轻单身女性、临时移民和大萧条时期失业的年轻单身男性。基于公民身份、性别和流动性的理论，该项目将采用档案收藏和文件的定性分析来分析国家对感知到的单身威胁的各种法律反应。通过分析单身人士和国家的法律历史，本研究将为针对非传统家庭和单身的法律和政策提供见解。最后，本研究将评估家庭成员和婚姻状况，以及缺乏家庭成员和婚姻状况，如何塑造了对公民身份的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Marital status and membership in a traditional family have been central in defining a sense of belonging in the nation. Since the early years of the American Republic, the ideal citizen has been imagined as married and part of a family. This project will examine how the state created laws and policies designed to regulate the lives of single people, and how status as a single person shaped individual’s relationship to the state and their claim to citizenship.This project will focus on five groups of single people in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century: World War I veterans, single immigrants, young single women, transients, and young unemployed single men during the Depression. Based on theories of citizenship, gender, and mobility, this project will employ a qualitative analysis of archival collections and documents to analyze the various legal responses of the state to the perceived threat of singleness. By analyzing the legal history of single people and the state, this research will provide insight into laws and policies aimed at nontraditional families and singleness. Ultimately, this study will assess how family membership and marital status, and the lack thereof, have shaped an understanding of citizenship.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.