Home page: Jaci Eisenberg. Above: UN European headquarters in Geneva

PhD Candidate in International History and Politics Jaci Eisenberg recently received three grants, a Caroline D. Bain Scholar-in-Residence fellowship, a Roosevelt Institute research grant and a Schlesinger Library dissertation grant, to use to further her doctoral research at American archival repositories. The research is part of the multiarchival study for her thesis “American women and International Geneva, 1919-1939.”

Under the supervision of Professor Andre Liebich, Ms Eisenberg’s work seeks to uncover the contributions of these women, whom she categorises as ‘double outsiders’ – as women, and as Americans – because they are largely neglected from traditional narratives of the history of international organisations. Her research has thus far taken her to several archives in Switzerland – the League of Nations archives, the International Labor Office archives, the International Bureau of Education archives, the International School of Geneva archives, the World Young Women’s Christian Association archives, and the Gosteli archives – but she said she is particularly thrilled to have received funding to spend a significant amount of time in American repositories.

Among the American women with International Geneva connections Ms Eisenberg’s research focuses on is Ruth Gregory Sweetser, wife of Arthur Sweetser of League of Nations fame, who was involved in the foundation of the International School of Geneva. Another is Fannie Fern Andrews who was known for trying to bring the International Bureau of Education into the League system. Also appearing in the research are Clara Guthrie d'Arcis, founder of the World Union of Women for International Concord, Mary Dingman, first of the YWCA, then founder of the Peace and Disarmament Committee of Women's International Organisations as well as Madeline Zabriskie Doty, International Secretary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. 

Ms Eisenberg will conduct her grant-based research in summer 2011 and early 2012. She will visit the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute, affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a dissertation grant beneficiary. She will continue her research at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Archives in Hyde Park, New York, under the auspices of a Roosevelt Institute research grant. She will finish her grant research at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, on a Caroline D. Bain scholar-in-residence fellowship.

Ms Eisenberg decided to undertake her graduate studies at the Graduate Institute after a positive experience as a visiting student during the Smith College Junior Year Abroad programme in Geneva. “While studying abroad I fell in love with the city, and as a historian, I was astounded by the richness of archives available here. When it came time to make a decision about where to undertake my graduate studies, there was little question”, she said. Ms Eisenberg received a Master in International History and Politics in 2009 from the Graduate Institute, and will this fall enter the third year of the PhD in International History and Politics programme, where she is also a teaching assistant, department webmaster, and Editor of the International History and Politics Working Papers series.