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Eastern represents at 'the beating heart of the historical profession’

Published on January 21, 2025

Eastern represents at 'the beating heart of the historical profession’

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Emma Schafer (left), Professor Balcerski (center) and Emma McCormack (right) attend the American Historical Association conference.

A history student and professor at Eastern Connecticut State University recently took a national stage to share their work on the sociopolitical impacts of three cornerstones of American culture: fast food, alcohol and tobacco.

Senior Emma McCormack and Professor Thomas Balcerski presented at the American Historical Association (AHA) conference from Jan. 3-5 at the New York Hilton hotel in New York, NY. Junior Emma Schafer attended and was inspired by the breadth of historical topics being discussed at the conference.

McCormack: “I feel like I’m an undergrad historian now”

McCormack participated in the lightning round of the conference on Jan. 5. She presented a shortened version of her project, “McPotempkin Village: Globalization of Post-Soviet Russia,” examining the McDonald’s fast food chain’s expansion to Russia and its political implications.

McCormack was born in post-Soviet Russia before being adopted and views her “origin story” as the source of her interest in Russia’s recent history. She began her project after seeing several photographs of an “iconic moment”: the opening of Moscow’s first McDonald’s in 1990.

Her project zooms in on how McDonald’s opening inspired public hope in capitalism in Russia prior to tensions in the region escalating in 2022.

“McDonald’s is equal parts global corporation and cultural icon,” said McCormack. To her, McDonald’s is both an emblem of Western economic culture and a “digestible symbol of globalization.”

McCormack also presented this work at the New England Historical Association (NEHA) fall meeting on Oct. 26 at Suffolk University in Boston, MA, where she had a larger window of time and was able to present her paper in full detail.

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McCormack presents her research.

However, having just three minutes to present at AHA, she had to abridge her project significantly. “Working on a large-scale research project, there are a lot of details you start to really like,” she said. “The hardest part was having to cut things I liked.”

At the conference, McCormack found many scholars who shared her research interest in the history and politics of eastern Europe. “There were so many panels of detailed, niche presentations,” she said.

Presenting at AHA helped validate McCormack’s identity in her field. “There were 4,000 historians there … I feel like I’m an undergraduate historian now,” said McCormack, who is applying to graduate programs in international affairs.

McCormack’s favorite part of the conference, along with the panels, was a book expo at which she purchased several works about the evolution and conflicts across eastern Europe. She also thanked Balcerski and Schafer for the conference opportunity, calling it “formative.”

Balcerski: “Riotous Representatives and Smoking Senators”

Balcerski presented a paper titled “Riotous Representatives and Smoking Senators: Alcohol and Tobacco Usage in Congress Before the Civil War.” This paper examines the role these substances played in the daily lives of pre-Civil War Congressmen and how it contributed to the conflict.

Balcerski started this research when he was working on his first book, “Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King.” The 15th United States president and 13th vice president were frequent alcohol and tobacco users, Balcerski explained.

Balcerski found that alcohol and tobacco use were commonplace among politicians in the antebellum United States. “The more I looked, the more I realized it extended between these two individuals,” he said.

Whether 19th century politicians faced pressure to use these substances or used their platform to access them is a “chicken or egg problem,” Balcerski said. He argues that the movement for temperance from alcohol, mainly by Northerners, played a part in driving the conflict.

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The Eastern group gathers in support of McCormack (right).

When studying the Civil War, “we tend to focus on moral reformers,” said Balcerski. “Temperance is in the background.” In his view, the temperance argument preceding the Civil War served “to interest people in the moral reform of ending slavery.”

Additionally, Balcerski organized a panel discussion at the conference, titled “Ice, Hooch and Hash: Using and Abusing Alcohol and Legal Drugs in Early America.” He secured co-sponsorship from the Alcohol and Drugs History Society, an affiliate of the AHA.

For Balcerski and his students, the trip was “four days at the beating heart of the historical profession.” He also relished the networking opportunity that the event provided for the students.

[Members] of my circle came together to support Emma (McCormack),” said Balcerski. Brett Rushforth, who spent a year with Balcerski as a long-term fellow at the Huntington Library in 2022-23, chaired the lighting round that included McCormack's presentation. “I couldn’t make up how well it turned out.”

Emma Schafer: “People want to talk to you about the things you study.”

As a junior attending the conference, Schafer found inspiration in an environment where the potential of a history degree was on display. “There were between 4,000 and 5,000 historians at AHA in an environment where historical studies are appreciated,” she said.

“It was great to see professionals in the field of history,” she said. “People want to talk to you about the things you study.”

In addition to supporting McCormack and Balcerski during their talks, Schafer sought presentations related to her research interest: Native Americans. She recalled “Un-naming New York,” a student-led presentation at the AHA: “It talked about renaming sites in lower Manhattan and how they’ve been appropriated from the Lenape language. … The project discussed ways that we can re-acknowledge land to Native Americans.”

Schafer works in the archives at the J. Eugene Smith Library, processing a collection surrounding the Brothertown Indian Nation, a group descending from Christianized tribes in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, and their legal fight for federal recognition.

Written by Noel Teter