Adaptation Amidst Adversity
South Slavic Enemy Aliens from Austria-Hungary in the U.S. during World War I
About the Project
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Exploring the Lives of South Slavic Enemy Aliens in WWI America

The U.S. government mobilized its citizens for the war effort through various measures that targeted Enemy Aliens – immigrants from countries at war with the U.S. Among them were three million immigrants from Austria-Hungary, including hundreds of thousands of South Slavs (Slovenians, Croatians, and Serbs) with diverse affiliations.

FAQ

The project aims to fill a gap in the scholarship on the immigrant experience during World War I, highlighting the challenges, contributions, and legacies of South Slavic Enemy Aliens and their ethnic communities in the U.S. The project also examines the strategies of adaptation and resistance employed by these groups, such as declaring loyalty, demonstrating patriotism, seeking naturalization, changing names, joining organizations, or maintaining identity and traditions.

Main Objective

The main objective of the project is to document the impact of enemy Alien status on the South Slavic immigrants and their ethnic communities in the U.S., who faced registration, surveillance, restriction, confiscation, and discrimination by the U.S. government and society after the U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917.

Sub-objectives

The sub-objectives of the project are:

SO1: Case studies of the impact of the World War I Enemy Alien status on Slovenians, Croatians and Serbs and their ethnic communities in the U.S.

SO2: Comparative analysis of the experiences and narratives of South Slavic ethnic communities in the U.S. in the wake of World War I Enemy Alien regulations

SO3: Comparative analysis of the experiences and narratives of South Slavic ethnic communities with the well-documented ones of the German-American community

SO4: A digitized database of select personal and community histories of the South Slavs in the U.S. who were affected by Enemy Alien status during World War I

The project employs various interdisciplinary methods from the humanities and social sciences, with a focus on migration and cultural studies, and historiography. It adopts a case study approach for each of the three ethnic groups, a comparative approach to contrast them with each other and with the German-American community, and a mixed-methods approach to combine qualitative and quantitative data.

The research work will produce the following deliverables:

D1: At least 4 research papers published in high-impact Scopus and/or Web of Science Core Collection-indexed journals

D2: A digital database with documented case studies of individual and community experiences, available on my project website

D3: A workshop on genealogy research at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor

D4: An exhibition on documented case studies of personal and community histories

Project Updates & Outreach

Koroška cesta 160 2000, Maribor, Slovenia

david.hazemali@um.si

info@wordpress.com​

The project is funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency – ARIS.