Hi, my name is Isidoro Campioni-Noack and I’ve just started as the new intern at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies. I will be working in the beautiful RIAS library for the next three months, but also conducting my own research and posting regularly on this Facebook page and on the RIAS Instagram page.

Yesterday, Professor Justin Hart from Texas Tech University gave a lecture on "The Fate of the Rooseveltian Century in the Age of Trump." Comparisons between Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Trump presidency were made, and Professor Hart attempted to see whether the current president marks a continuity or discontinuity from the Rooseveltian Century. Seasoned scholars, concerned citizens, master students and local high school students all joined the insightful lecture and contributed with challenging questions. Feel free to tag yourself if you are in one of the pictures!

The RIAS has contributed to the restyling of the New Diplomatic History webpage. Check it out at www.newdiplomatichistory.org

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of welcoming Bradley Phipps from the University of Leicester. He is a PhD candidate there at the School of History, Politics and International Relations. Below you can read about Bradley's time at the RIAS and learn more about his research. Thank you for visiting us Bradley, and we too hope you return here in the future! "My time at the archive was of great benefit to my PhD research, which focuses on the issue of gender and sexuality in the White Citizens' Councils, a network of groups which formed in the United States, primarily in the South from 1954 onwards with the intent to maintain racial segregation and uphold white supremacy. My research at the archive focused on the Right Wing Collections, from which I accessed the large number of documents produced by the White Citizens' Councils. I am in the first year of my PhD research, and with RIAS having been my first archival trip, my primary research prior to my visit was limited to the small number of relevant sources available in the United Kingdom or online. RIAS' collections of Council propaganda are extensive, which allowed me to view Council propaganda from outside of its Southern heartland; to view propaganda produced by smaller Council groups; and to view propaganda from a broader time period. In doing so, I was able to begin drawing comparisons and contrasts between the role that gender and sexuality played in the Councils' efforts to defend segregation and white supremacy. At the archive, I viewed a significant amount of propaganda that was produced by the Councils. Additionally, I was able to conduct some lateral research which will prove invaluable to contextualising the issues that my research focuses on. Sources such as these will allow me to better place the role of gender in the segregationist Council groups in the wider context of gender in conservative activism and the influence of the broader social climate. I will now continue my analysis of the sources I viewed with much greater detail as I move forward with my thesis. Provisional conclusions I have drawn from the items viewed at RIAS pertain to how gender varied in different Council groups, particularly in terms of how different Council groups utilised sexual rhetoric or imaginary in varying ways to encourage their readers to defend segregation. This is an area which reveals complex issues of gender, social class, and the unique contexts in which each individual Council operated, which will be explored in more detail in my thesis. Thank you for the opportunity to conduct research at the archive, for the grant which made it possible, and for the kind assistance I was provided by staff during my time there. I would like to extend particular thanks to the staff with whom I had regular content: Leontien for organising my visit and her general assistance; Cees for demonstrating the use of microfilm to me and for his interest in my research project; and Mitchell for his constant willingness to solve problems. It was a pleasure to meet you all and to feel so welcomed. I hope to return in the future to conduct further research."

We want to congratulate Leiden University with the successful opening of their new Asian Library! We are certain students will be able to make great use of the new facility and the sources it has to offer.

On 4 October, the RIAS will host the lecture “The Fate of the Rooseveltian Century in the Age of Trump”. The lecture will be given by Professor Justin Hart. Professor hart serves as the Roosevelt Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for fall 2017 and holds the title of Associate Chair and Associate Professor of History at Texas Tech University (USA). Professor Hart looks backward and forward to offer a comment on the status of the Rooseveltian Century nearly a year into Donald J. Trump’s presidency in the United States. Are the much-lamented cracks in the trans-Atlantic alliance significant or superficial, temporary or permament? Is it even possible, at this point, to identify a clear foreign policy agenda or vision from the Trump administration, given the conflicting messages that come from the president’s advisors, as well as the president himself? The lecture will begin with remarks on the origins of the Rooseveltian Century and culminate in an assessment of its fate, now and in the future. If you want to attend this lecture, please register (by preference before Thursday 28 September 2017) at either: T +31(0)118 631590 E rias@zeeland.nl For more information, please visit our site: https://www.roosevelt.nl/

From August 14 to 17 we had Dr Przemyslaw Piotr Damski visit us here at the RIAS to do some research on British-American relations during the First World War. Read more about Dr Damski's experience at our instutute below. It was a pleasure having you and many thanks for your kind words Przemyslaw! “I have just back home from Middelburg. It was my second time at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies. Earlier, I had been working there on a book devoted to Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy and I found the RIAS collection of primary and secondary sources more than useful. Thanks to RIAS Research Grant I could conduct research in Middleburg once again, this time on the impact of emotions on British-American relations during the First World War. I used a lot of books focused, both, on Wilson's and Roosevelt's activity during this global conflict. Additional, but important, information I found among Theodore Roosevelt Papers and in Henry Stimson Diaries. Thanks to the RIAS staff my stay in Middelburg was a pleasure. I would like to thank Mitchell Zee (intern) and Cees Heere (researcher) for interesting and inspiring conversations and willingness, and eagerness to make my research as effective as possible. Last but not least, thanks Leontien Joose, RIAS good spirit, I could feel a little bit like paying a visit to a long-time-no-see colleagues. Definitely, my place for American Studies in Europe.”

A few weeks ago Dr. Adam Burns visited us here in Middelburg to make use of our collection on Theodore Roosevelt. Now that he's back in Wolverhampton, he has written about his time at the institute below. Thank you for the kind words Adam, and we hope to see you again in the future! "This July, I was lucky enough to be the recipient of an RIAS Research Grant, enabling me to travel to the RIAS to conduct research on Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Party. The RIAS has a range of excellent resources not readily available outside of the United States, including invaluable sets of primary documents on microfilm (particularly, for me, the presidential papers), as well as a variety of texts and online databases. The staff and researchers based at the institute were incredibly helpful, providing support and advice throughout the two weeks I spent in Middelburg. Having already visited the RIAS (or RSC as it then was) to conduct research over a decade ago, I consider myself very lucky indeed to have once again benefitted from their generosity and excellent resources."

To mark the launch of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, the institute will host a major international conference in November 2017, dedicated to exploring the ‘Rooseveltian century’ as a historical theme and an interpretative framework. The Rooseveltian Century is a new concept for contemporary history, which seeks to connect the emergence of the United States as a global power to the development of progressive politics, both at home and abroad. It examines the three most prominent Roosevelts - Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor - as a ‘collective agent’ who changed our understanding of the responsibilities of government and the global role of the United States. It links the three Roosevelts not only by name but also by belief, purpose and worldview. The Rooseveltian Century, as a historical frame, makes use of the three Roosevelts to view, critically consider, and explore progressive themes in US history and international relations, without necessarily stating that the three acted in unison or that they expressed the same views or policies. The conference explores how the concept of a Rooseveltian Century might be used ro reintrerpret major themes in American and global history. To that end, it brings together a wide range of leading scholars to address how the Roosevelts redefined three overarching themes: security, equality, and freedom. The conference will feature some of the leading scholars of American history on both sides of the Atlantic as special guests. Keynote speakers include Frank Costigliola (University of Connecticut); Mary Dudziak (Emory University); Petra Goedde (Temple University); Kiran Patel (Maastricht University); Lisa McGirr (Harvard University); Justin Hart (Texas Tech University); Elizabeth Borgwardt (Washington University in St. Louis); Mario del Pero (SciencesPo); Michael Cullinane (Northumbria University); and David Woolner (Roosevelt Institute). For more information about the conference, including a detailed program, please visit our site here: https://www.roosevelt.nl/activities/conference-pursuing-rooseveltian-century

We are happy to welcome the newest member of the RIAS team, Dr. Damian Pargas! Below he has written an introduction telling us his academic interests: I am so happy to have the opportunity to work with my friends Giles, Dario, Cees and Leontien to help give shape to the RIAS in its new form. The RIAS has a unique opportunity to expand its role as a platform for research, conferences, education and public outreach regarding all aspects of American studies, and I am excited to be a part of it. By way of introduction, my interest in the history and culture of North America is as broad as the North American experience itself, but in my research I have always been particularly fascinated by the history of slavery and its aftermath. Since the obtainment of my PhD at Leiden University in 2009, I have published widely on the social history of African-American slaves in the 19th-century US South. My first book, The Quarters and the Fields (2010), was a comparative study of slave family life that focused on the various boundaries and opportunities that enslaved people were confronted with to create families, raise children, and protect their family units from external threats. My second book, Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South (2014) examined how enslaved people experienced forced removal—what it was like for them to be sold away, have to leave their homes and families, and start a new life somewhere else where they didn’t know anybody. I am currently working on a third book (which I hope will be out by 2020) that examines runaway slaves throughout North America, including the US North and South, as well as Canada and Mexico. I am especially interested in how runaway slaves navigated various “spaces of freedom” in North America. This book will be based on an NWO VIDI project that I am supervising, titled “Beacons of Freedom: Slave Refugees in North America, 1800-1860.” Despite my primary focus on North American history, I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with non-Americanists as well, and I can often be found at conferences and events that at first glance may not look like “American history” events. The American experience is poorly understood in isolation, and I am convinced that the interests of our discipline are best served when we look across borders (both geographical and disciplinary) and engage in dialogue with colleagues who work on similar themes but in other contexts. The expertise housed within RIAS alone includes such global themes as human rights activism, diplomacy and international relations, empire, and slavery. Placing American themes in global or international contexts reveals similarities, differences, interconnectedness, and processes of divergence and convergence between the North American experience and other parts of the world. I look forward to helping to organize RIAS events that appeal to not only the thriving American studies community in The Netherlands, but to non-Americanists as well. The welcome mat is out

Renee de Groot is back from her trip to North Dakota which she won by winning Theodore Roosevelt American History Award (TRAHA) for best MA thesis. She visited the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation and the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University. A small preview from her travel report can be found below, but go to our site here to find the full report! https://www.roosevelt.nl/traha-2017 "When I passed through St. Paul's International Airport in Minneapolis, a customs agent ordered me into another room for additional questioning. I am not sure what it was about me that aroused suspicion but my best guess is that my travel route—Amsterdam to Bismarck—required an explanation. The bemused agent asked me why on earth I was going to North Dakota (rich coming from a Minnesotan). I explained that I had won a prize named after President Theodore Roosevelt and I was invited to the town of Medora to visit the Roosevelt sites there. The answer satisfied him, but a similar question would pop up several times over the next week: many of my hosts at the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation and the Theodore Roosevelt Center in Dickinson wanted to know what I had expected to find in North Dakota."

On July 17th a group of students from University of California, Berkeley visited the RIAS as part of their tour through Europe. After spending a few hours in Middelburg, they arrived at the abbey and joined us for a lecture given by our own Giles Scott-Smith. The students were informed about the Dutch roots of the Roosevelts and how these three important figures in American history interacted with the Netherlands in their life. After the lecture the students were quizzed about the Roosevelts and they could win some fun little prizes! We hope you had fun here in Middelburg and we wish you a pleasant tour through the rest of Europe!