The two winners of the 2010 NASA Research Grants are Rebecca Laurey (MA American History, Leiden University) and Maarten Zwiers (Ph.D., Groningen University).

Rebecca’s project involves primary research in New York to analyse the causes and consequences of the Harlem riots that took place in 1935, 1943, and 1964. The aim is to examine the social, political, economic, and religious causes that lay behind these riots, which took place in very different contexts (the Depression, WW II, and the Civil Rights period). She will conduct most of her research at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (part of the New York Public Library) in Harlem, New York.

Maarten’s Ph.D. project is entitled Between Party and Principle: James Eastland, the Democratic Tradition, and the Southern Way of Life. His research into the life and political impact of this controversial Southern Senator will take him on a major tour of US archives in the second half of 2010, covering collections in Massachusetts, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Missouri, and New Jersey.

Reports

A New York ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Rebecca Laurey (MA History, Leiden University)

Harlem in the twentieth century was a study in contrasts. The bubbling nightlife, with music filtering into the avenues where cabs disgorged zootsuited hipsters, differed sharply from the daily life of most of its citizens. The wide, open-sky vistas were marred by the silhouettes of rundown tenements. And for every beaming smile and burst of laughter, there were a dozen frowns. To live in Harlem was to live between hope and disaster. Read more.