Research Projects
Research Projects
Our research focuses on transatlantic relations, African-American history, and the history of religion. Professor Waldschmidt-Nelson also works on social reform movements, migration history, gender and popular culture. At present, the research of the team is focused on the following topics:
Marian Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund
(Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson)
A study on the organizational history and work of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) and a biography of its founder Marian Wright Edelman.
Transnational collaborations for women's rights and social justice
(Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson)
A transnational history of the women's rights movement in the 19th century and 20. century. In the sense of a histoire croisée, the flow of ideas and the role of specific political and social developments as well as concrete examples of cooperation between women's rights activists across the borders of different European countries and the Atlantic will be examined.
White Female Southern-States activists in the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s
(Clara Sophie Höhn)
The overarching questions are: how can women as white female activists be located in a civil rights movement primarily dominated by black comrades-in-arms? What internal and external conflicts caused their presence as white women in the civil rights movement? What roles did they take on, what influence did they exert on events and what experiences made in this context had a lasting effect on their own lives?