James P. Danky Fellowship

The James P. Danky Fellowship

2008 Danky Fellow: Derek Seidman

Congratulations to Derek Seidman on being awarded the first Danky Fellowship! Derek is a PhD candidate in history at Brown University. He arrived at graduate school planning to study US labor/working class history and the history of American radicalism. While at Brown he learned about the then-recently formed Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). With his exposure to IVAW and his longstanding interest in the protest movements of the 1960s, he became fascinated with the antecedent to current troop antiwar activism: the Vietnam era GI and veterans' movement.

Derek Seidman's project, "The Unquiet Americans", examines the history of Vietnam era GI dissent. Using a variety of original sources and oral histories, he looks at the issues that dissident troops rallied around, how they organized and articulated their grievances, the success and failures of their efforts, and the impact that troop dissent had on the military. From organizing around issues of civil liberties, anti-racism and protesting the military hierarchy and war policies, to forming GI coffeehouses and newspapers, Vietnam era soldiers and their allies built a widespread but decentralized movement that challenged conventional military policies and decorum and gave strategic leverage to the broader antiwar movement. Other forms of GI unrest and revolt-- less overtly political, less organized, but more frequent-- also took their toll on military morale and effectiveness. Derek's project aims to illuminate this significant yet largely understudied story, to understand it on its own terms while also placing it in the larger context of postwar American history.

The Danky Fellowship will help Derek use the vast array of resources at the Wisconsin Historical Society relating to the topic of Vietnam era GI dissent. These include scores of underground antiwar newspapers published by GIs and their allies, collections of troop, civilian and legal organizations connected to the GI movement, and oral history collections. These sources, says Derek, are indispensable to his research and will allow him to tell the history of GI dissent during the Vietnam War with much greater detail, clarity and richness.

About the Fellowship

In honor of James P. Danky's long service to print culture scholarship, the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Historical Society, is offering an annual short-term research fellowship.

The Danky Fellowship provides $1000 in funds for one individual planning a trip to carry out research using the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society (please see details of the collections at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org). Grant money may be used for travel to the WHS, costs of copying pertinent archival resources, and living expenses while pursuing research here. If in residence during the semester, the recipient will be expected to give a presentation as part of the colloquium series of the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America (http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~printcul/).

Preference will be given to:

proposals undertaking research in print culture history
researchers from outside Madison
research likely to lead to publication

We strongly encourage applicants to speak with the Reference Archivist at the WHS (phone: 608-264-6460; email: askarchives@wisconsinhistory.org) before applying for a grant. We are happy to help identify potential collections of which you may not otherwise be aware.

There is no application form. Applicants must submit:

1) A cover sheet with name, telephone, permanent address and e-mail, current employer/affiliation, title of project, and proposed dates of residency.

2) A letter of two single-spaced pages maximum describing the project and its relation to specifically cited collections at the society and to previous work on the same theme, and describing the projected outcome of the work, including publication plans. If residents of the Madison area are applying, they must explain their financial need for the stipend.

3) Curriculum vitae.

4) Two confidential letters of reference. Graduate students must include their thesis advisor.

Applications are due by May 1st. The recipient will be notified by May 31st.

Please email applications to:

Christine Pawley Ph.D.
Director, Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America
University of Wisconsin-Madison
4234 Helen C. White Hall
600 N. Park St .
Madison , WI 53706

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the fund for the Danky Fellowship (a donation that would be restricted for this use), please make your check (marked "Danky Fellowship") payable to the Wisconsin Historical Foundation, and mail it to: Wisconsin Historical Foundation, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706-1482 (phone: 608-261-9364).