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Christopher J. Fischer <Christopher.Fischer@indstate.edu> Indiana State University My research examines the issue of regionalism in the contested border region of Alsace. My dissertation, “Alsace to the Alsatians? Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism” delves into broader questions of frontier and identity by tracing the evolution of Alsatian regionalism from 1890 to 1930. During this period, Alsatians lived in the Kaiserreich then, following the First World War, the French Third Republic. Regionalism—articulated as a political language, a cultural vision, and a community of identity—served as the primary means for Alsatians to define and defend their own interests in relation to the nationalist claims of Germany and France. Drawing upon extensive archival research and the contemporary press, I examine Alsatian regionalism from its early development as a cultural phenomenon as embodied, for example, in the Alsatian dialect theater or local folk art museums. I then explore the influence of this cultural regionalism on political developments in the last years of German control of Alsace before turning to the ramifications of the war on Alsatian attitudes. Finally, I analyze how the earlier cultural and political regionalism transformed into an Alsatian autonomist movement in response to French policies in the late 1920s. The case of Alsace, I argue, points to a dual, often competing, set of functions for regionalism as it serves to both inhibit and foster links between region and the nation. |
| Address: | Department of History Stalker Hall Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN 47802 United States |
| List Affiliations: | List Editor for H-German Reviewer for H-Nationalism |
| Reviews: | Nationalism, Dictatorship, and the Search for Identity Fischer on Weil |
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Bio: Education University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Ph.D. in Modern European History (May 2003). Dissertation: “Alsace to the Alsatians? Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism, 1890-1930.” Advisor: Dr. Konrad Jarausch. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill M.A. in European History (May 1998). Thesis: “Between Heimat and Nation: Constructions of Alsatianness, 1890-1929.” University of Notre Dame B.A. in History and German (May 1995). Academic Positions Visiting Assistant Professor, Loyola College, Baltimore (July 2003-present). Teaching Fellow, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Spring 2003). Teaching Assistant, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Fall 1996-Fall 2002). Grants/Fellowships Mowry Fellowship to help underwrite research and travel costs of doctoral research (Spring 2002). Lurcy Grant to pursue doctoral research in Strasbourg, France (2001-2002). Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) Grant to undertake doctoral research in Freiburg, Germany (1999-2000). Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship to support doctoral research in Freiburg, Germany (1999- 2000). Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship to study French in Paris, France (Summer 1997). Fulbright Grant to study history at the University of Innsbruck, Austria (1995-96). National Endowment for the Humanities Younger Scholars Grant to conduct summer research on the South Tyrol Question in South Bend, Indiana (Summer 1994). Conferences/Talks “National Commemorations, Regional Celebrations: Alsace, 1918-1940,” Paper presented at the Western Society for French History, Newport Beach, California (October 2003). “Wilsonian Idealism, European Peace, and Regionalism: The Case of Alsace, 1918-1930.” Paper presented at the Society for French Historical Studies, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (April 2003). “War Weariness or National Reunion? Alsatian Wartime Attitudes, 1914-1918.” Paper presented at the Western Society for French History, Indianapolis, Indiana (November 2001). “Monuments, Museums, and Memory: The Alsatian Museum, Hohkönigsburg, and the Uses of History in Alsace, 1899-1914.” Paper presented at “History at the Grassroots Level,” Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois (October 2000). “Regionalisierter Nationalismus oder Entnationalisierter Regionalismus? Hansi, Gustav Stoskopf, und zwei Visionen elsässischer Regionalismus.” Paper presented at the Forschungskolloquium zur neueren Geschichte und Zeitgeschichte, Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany (June 2000). |
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