Student Travel Diary
On February 20th, I flew across the Atlantic for the first time to conduct research at the Imperial War Museum in London, England. The research I conducted there will be used for the completion of my Honours thesis, which I am currently in the process of completing for the spring of 2016. This thesis will also serve as the foundation for my first article submission to a peer-reviewed journal, and one of the major kickoffs for my academic career.
My thesis explores soldier identity in German East Africa during the First World War. Soldiers knew as early as August 1914 that victory on the Western front dictated the success of the First World War. However many soldiers served along other fronts, and one of the largest was in the African colonies. However this front is largely seen as a side-show as early as 1914, which leaves soldiers in an unusual position: how do they reconcile with being soldiers on a peripheral front rather than serving in France, which was where the main battles were occurring. I am particularly interested in how the soldiers coped with knowledge of their strategic insignificance, and how that plays into their attitudes about East Africa itself.
The files I focused on were memoirs and diaries of soldiers stationed in East Africa during the war. I tried to get perspectives from a diverse range of soldiers to try and examine how different types of soldiers reacted to serving in the periphery. The main documents I studied were memoirs and diaries, which offered unique insight into soldiers' psyche. I also examined letters between soldiers and the home front, and personal papers of high-ranking officers serving in German East Africa.
There is no feeling quite like working with archival documents. Seeing the handwritten scrawls of long-dead soldiers is chilling, yet it is a vital part of our connection to the past. This experience is one that I am very grateful to have had, and it would not have been possible without the Scholarship in the Arts travel grant. I hope that I will have another opportunity to visit the Imperial War Museum again!