World War I British Empire Recruitment Poster
Research
My research interests include: 20th Century British Empire, Anglo-Irish Relations, Irish Nationalism, Decolonization, Citizenship and Empire, British Social History, British Cultural History, Modern Irish History and Commonwealth History.
Selected Works and Publications
Presentations
My research interests include: 20th Century British Empire, Anglo-Irish Relations, Irish Nationalism, Decolonization, Citizenship and Empire, British Social History, British Cultural History, Modern Irish History and Commonwealth History.
Selected Works and Publications
- "A War for Small Nationalities: The Great War, Nationalism, and the Irish Conscription Crisis of 1918" (2014) Master's Thesis.
- "A Declaration of War: The Press and the Irish Conscription Crisis of 1918" (2013) in Utah Historical Review, Volume III
- “Unwilling to Compromise: Roger Casement’s Human Rights Views 1900-1914” published in SJSU Passport (2012)
Presentations
- “A Declaration of War: The Press, Parliament, and the 1918 Irish Conscription Crisis” presented at “Ireland and the First World War Conference” at University College Cork. Cork, Ireland. January 24-25, 2014.
- "A Hidden Life: Roger Casement and Homosexual Behavior in Early Twentieth Century Europe” presented at the Rocky Mountain European Scholars Consortium. Salt Lake City, Utah, October 24-25, 2013.
Signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, December 6th, 1921.
Current Project
With the enactment of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, December 6, 1922 marked the beginning of the Irish Free State, officially terminating Ireland’s settler colonial relationship with Britain and giving the Free State dominion status within the British Commonwealth of Nations. The era of decolonization is traditionally viewed as the decades following World War II, where many of Britain’s overseas holdings transitioned from colonial status to commonwealths or independent nation-states. However, in 1922 this was a relatively new occurrence. My project challenges this timeline of decolonization and approaches the Irish Free State as a testing ground where unprecedented questions compelled the British to reconsider many of its positions with regards to the empire. More specifically, this project considers the ways the Irish Free State challenged British citizenship and subjecthood.
The British assumed that the Irish Free State would follow the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act of 1914, which defined a British subject as anyone who was born or naturalized within Britain’s dominions. However, the Oath of Allegiance for IFS civil servants refers to an empire-wide “common citizenship” and article three of the Irish Free State constitution provides for citizenship within the Irish Free State, outside of British subjecthood. Both of these provisions were unprecedented in Britain’s dominions and required the British to question the language surrounding citizenship as well as redefine who was included and excluded as a British Subject. Not only did these questions appear amongst British officials, they also permeated multiple levels of Britain’s bureaucratic infrastructure. My project asserts that the Irish Free State is part the greater narrative of twentieth century British decolonization, and, in many ways, the first instance of its kind that compelled the British to question the language surrounding citizenship and reconsider who was included and excluded as a British subject.