GRADUATE STUDENTS

Transform Graduate Students

Anna Vincenzi, Ph.D. Department of History Nanovic Graduate Fellow

Throughout her career as a graduate student, Anna Vincenzi’s research and experience at Notre Dame was enriched by the Nanovic Institute. Vincenzi, who was conferred with her Ph.D. in history this May, specializes in the “Age of Revolution” (1765-1848), a time marked by citizen upheaval in Europe, not dissimilar to the current sociopolitical climate.

In the spring of 2016, during her second year of doctoral study with the Department of History, Vincenzi was awarded a graduate professional development grant to attend the British and Irish Associations for American Studies annual conference at the Queen’s University in Belfast to present, “The American Revolutions of Venice, Florence, and Rome: Views from the Italian Gazettes, 1765- 1791.” Vincenzi was awarded two more graduate professional development grants the following year to give presentations: one at the Consortium of the Revolutionary Era at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, the other at the Age of Revolutions Conference hosted by Notre Dame’s Rome Global Gateway. In 2018, she received a fourth grant to participate in the Global Dome Ph.D. Accelerator Program in the United Kingdom, organized by Nanovic faculty fellows Patrick Griffin and Elliot Visconsi in collaboration with faculty from the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, and Heidelberg.

“As I approached the defense of my dissertation proposal, and as I attempted to define the scope of my research and the questions that my dissertation would answer, opportunities to network and learn from other scholars through dialogue were extremely fruitful,” says Vincenzi.

With financial support from a Nanovic Institute summer travel and research grant, Vincenzi spent two weeks conducting research in Florence, Modena, and Milan during June 2018. In Florence, she carried out research at the State Archive, where she focused on sources pertaining to the Tuscan Grand Duke Peter Leopold’s reforms and most specifically his constitutional project. Vincenzi also visited the National Library, the Marucelliana Library, and the Oblate Library, where she accessed and made digital reproductions of a great number of Tuscan and nonTuscan periodicals.

“This grant allowed me to make essential progress toward the completion of two of my dissertation chapters—a chapter focusing on Florentine reactions to the American Revolution, and a chapter looking at how interpretations of the American Revolution evolved and changed during the 1790s and after the French Revolution broke out,” says Vincenzi.

The digital journal reproductions served as the basis for the last of her dissertation chapters. With plans to submit a book proposal to a publisher in the near future, Vincenzi believes her Nanovic-funded professional development grants have poised her to find success as she begins applications for academic jobs.

“I want to thank the Nanovic Institute for supporting my research and allowing me to make essential progress toward the completion of my dissertation.”

“The Nanovic Institute provides Notre Dame students with a European home away from home and affords us so many opportunities to reach our academic and personal potential.”

Clare O’Hare Doctoral Candidate, Notre Dame Law School Nanovic Graduate Fellow

When I applied to join the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, I underestimated how much it would contribute to my research and enrich my Notre Dame experience. Thanks to a travel and research grant I conducted preliminary in-country research in Paris and London. This research now forms the basis of my dissertation on commercial courts in Europe. This research spans law, history, political science, and economics—and the Nanovic Institute affords me the opportunity to interact with leading scholars across these fields in ways that just aren’t possible within individual departments.

The support I found at Nanovic goes far beyond financial. As a graduate fellow I now have an incredible community, who are now friends as well as colleagues. While we come from a variety of departments on campus, three different continents and five countries, we share a deep interest in all things European and are all committed to high-quality research and teaching. Our biweekly meetings were warm affairs, and we used the time to share our research and to develop a new undergraduate interdisciplinary seminar called “Contesting Europe.” For many of us, it was our first time co-teaching, and for some, it was the first time developing a new syllabus. For all of us, it was a chance to develop new teaching, leadership and mentorship skills when we launched the course in January 2020. Having this group to lean on has been even more important as we moved the course online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are sharing resources on how to deliver online teaching successfully and in place of our usual coffee and treats in the Institute, we are sharing our favorite recipes now that our meetings have also gone virtual!

Finally, the Nanovic Institute provides the graduate fellows with the opportunity to engage with a broader audience. We all hope that our scholarship can contribute positively to the world. During these strange times the Institute is encouraging the graduate fellows to contribute short pieces that connect with the COVID-19 pandemic from a European perspective. COVID-19 is undoubtedly the biggest threat to integral human development that I have seen in my lifetime and I am grateful that the Institute is confident that we, the graduate fellows, can contribute to the emerging conversation. But most especially, I am grateful for the people who make the work of the Institute possible, for providing Notre Dame students with a European home away from home and for affording us so many opportunities to reach our academic and personal potential.

Kevin Richardson ’20 Master of Global Affairs Keough School of Global Affairs Kevin Richardson, a recent graduate of the Master of Global Affairs program, used his academic year travel and research grant from the Nanovic Institute to return to Ukraine, a place he had grown to love as a Peace Corps volunteer. To complete his thesis, Richardson needed to answer his central question: to what extent did the 2012 Ukrainian language law consolidate Ukrainian identity?

While in Ukraine, Richardson interviewed community leaders, academics, and journalists, including leading researchers at Ukrainian Catholic University about the ever-evolving relationship between language and belonging in the country. Richardson was interested in a shift from an ethnic to a more civic definition of Ukrainian identity in the past decade and further sought to understand how Ukrainian identity varies from region to region, especially in regions where Ukrainian is not the primary spoken language. Having developed the language skills needed to undertake this project from his previous two years in the country, Richardson was uniquely poised to complete this research.

“There is arguably no more important issue in Europe today than the construction of a Ukrainian identity that will satisfy the desires of both the Ukrainian and Russian-speaking populations,” says A. James McAdams, William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs and director of the Nanovic Institute from 2002 to 2018. McAdams served as a faculty advisor for Richardson’s Nanovic grant proposal and graduate thesis. “I was particularly impressed with Kevin’s success in capturing the nuances and challenges of this undertaking through both primary research and interviews in Ukraine.”

Richardson walked away from his 25-day research trip with numerous insights into the role of language in

Ukraine. He found that “Ukrainians do not directly link language to their identity—language has been and continues to be used as a political tool to purposely incite division and frictions between regions and ethnicities of Ukraine. I also found that while there has been a shift towards a more civic understanding of Ukrainian identity and citizenship, it’s not as strong as I had initially thought.”

When asked about the importance of physically being in Ukraine to conduct this research, Richardson said that his main task was finding out how actual people felt about the language law. From his interviews in Ukraine, Richardson arrived at his biggest insight, which altered his thesis’s direction. “No one really knew much about the 2012 law. When asked about it, the only common answer was that it was ‘bad,’ but they didn’t recall what exactly it did or why they thought it was particularly bad.”

In addition to a successful research experience, Richardson also felt his time in Ukraine opened doors for his future. “Many thought my perspective and research could help in their own fields of work and even suggested that I find a job working in Ukraine after I graduate,” he said. “This confidence in and affirmation of my work has further motivated me to write a quality thesis, as well as opened up my mind to the prospect of working in Ukraine. Having discovered many areas that need further research in Ukraine also put the idea of potentially seeking a Ph.D. in my mind in order to pursue a better understanding and fill some of those gaps.” Richardson added that this research trip exceeded any expectations he had, and he is incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity.

“The first day I walked into the Nanovic Institute was the day that marked a shift in my experience at Notre Dame. Since then, Nanovic has always been welcoming and supportive. I wouldn’t have been able to graduate the way I have without the Institute.”