RESEARCH: PAST, CURRENT AND FUTURE PROJECTS
My dissertation "Hitler's Happy People: Propaganda, Policies and Practices of the Nazi Leisure Organization Strength through Joy in the Third Reich" was completed in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Omer Bartov, Brown University.
My research shows how eager the Nazi regime was to provide ‘everyday happiness’ for Germans through KdF, and how this was considered crucial for the regime’s stability and success. With this, my work extends our understanding of both the governance of and the everyday life in the Third Reich. For my details on my dissertation, please click here.
I am currently revising my dissertation to turn into a monograph that illustrates the prevalence of ‘everyday happiness’ in the Third Reich.
(Poster for KdF Sports, 1935. Source from Bundesarchiv.)
Additionally, I am working on a project currently titled Women’s Warfare for Joy. This builds upon on research I began for my dissertation on KdF’s involvement in the entertainment of German soldiers at the front, SS-men in concentration camps and Ethnic Germans in occupied Europe. However, this new projects shifts the perspective from the Nazi leisure organization to the female performers who were active on behalf of Strength through Joy and other agencies that arranged front entertainment. My focus will be primarily on female artists – such as singers, actors, or acrobats – who were members of front theater ensembles and traveling vaudeville troupes that entertained German soldiers and other (Ethnic) Germans in German-occupied Europe. For more on this, click here.
My research shows how eager the Nazi regime was to provide ‘everyday happiness’ for Germans through KdF, and how this was considered crucial for the regime’s stability and success. With this, my work extends our understanding of both the governance of and the everyday life in the Third Reich. For my details on my dissertation, please click here.
I am currently revising my dissertation to turn into a monograph that illustrates the prevalence of ‘everyday happiness’ in the Third Reich.
(Poster for KdF Sports, 1935. Source from Bundesarchiv.)
Additionally, I am working on a project currently titled Women’s Warfare for Joy. This builds upon on research I began for my dissertation on KdF’s involvement in the entertainment of German soldiers at the front, SS-men in concentration camps and Ethnic Germans in occupied Europe. However, this new projects shifts the perspective from the Nazi leisure organization to the female performers who were active on behalf of Strength through Joy and other agencies that arranged front entertainment. My focus will be primarily on female artists – such as singers, actors, or acrobats – who were members of front theater ensembles and traveling vaudeville troupes that entertained German soldiers and other (Ethnic) Germans in German-occupied Europe. For more on this, click here.