A small note for any who might be interested in hearing about my work in a shorter, more accessible format (and/or want more than my interview on the HistoriCal Outreach podcast) - I thought I would link to my presentation at the Miller Center for Public Affairs National Fellows conference in the spring. It's available (in video and audio) here: http://millercenter.org/events/2014/cross-border-transformations-war-and-revolution-in-international-history
The Miller Center is a real treasure at the University of Virginia, and each year they award fellowships to PhD students in History and Politics studying aspects of US history with policy implications. The fellows are expected to be in their final year of dissertation writing, and are encouraged but not required to be in residence. Charlottesville is tremendous, so residence was absolutely the right choice for me, but obviously some have family or other obligations. Anyone who might be interested should really check out the program here, including the new fellowships dedicated to:
1) Business history - in conjunction with the Darden School of Business, recently ranked the #3 business school in the world by The Economist, and the Hagley Museum, which is also a tremendous resource for business scholars; and
2) Legal history - in conjunction with UVA's Law School, also one of the best in the nation; and
3) Technology and Democracy, funded by the Albert T. Monell Foundation. This is the specific fellowship I had.
There are also the ~10-12 general purpose fellowships, so any late-stage graduate students working in US-related fields with policy implications should really give it a look.
Be sure to poke around from that original link to see the other fellows' really exciting presentations. The fellowship also comes with help recruiting a "dream mentor" from among any faculty who might be useful for your work to comment on your dissertation chapters, and those mentors were also on the panels offering commentary. So, not just grad students presenting their/our work, but also some actual discussion putting things in context. After a near-decade studying a topic, it can be tricky for grad students to see the world as someone who hasn't been an expert in that topic, so these mentors' talks are probably even more useful for any broader publics.
