- Fellowship year:2021-2022
- University: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
- Dissertation Topic/Category: United States
- Dissertation Title: Citizenship on Parade: Civic Identity, Gender, and the American City at the Turn of the Century
The turn of the twentieth century in the United States was a time of dynamic urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. Given these specific dynamics, ideas of the civic community and citizenship became very important and fraught issues in this era of rapid transformation. Nowhere were there dynamics more on display than in the nation's emerging cities.
Emma's dissertation, "Citizenship on Parade: Civic Identity, Gender, and the American City at the Turn of the Century" looks at the different ways groups used urban streets in a ceremonial context to present themselves as good urban citizens. It argues as urbanities paraded through city streets, presenting their vision of place, identity, and belonging, they articulated what Emma terms "civic citizenship." Gender, in particular the performance of ideal womanhood or manhood, was central to these parades' organization, execution, and reception.