Emilie CunningGraduate Student
My doctoral dissertation examines the role of American exiles in Britain protesting the US war in Vietnam in conjunction with British anti-war activists. I look at how these exiles, inclusive of draft resisters and "Refugees of McCarthyism" reformulate our understandings of the anti-Vietnam war movement through considering the influence of Americans abroad. Many of these individuals were directly influenced by the intellectual discourses of the New Left in Britain, as well as ongoing debates around Decolonisation. In association with British anti-war activists, these American exiles constructed critiques of US imperialism in Vietnam utilising these discourses and debates. The dissertation also tells the story of how US-UK surveillance systems became further integrated as intelligence agencies cooperated to monitor activities of draft resisters and track down suspected military deserters.
I am in the 5th Year of the PhD program. My doctoral work builds upon previous research on the US War in Vietnam from my Masters at Cambridge University. My work on Project 100,000 in the Vietnam War has been published in Modern American History (The Making of a Militarized War on Poverty: https://doi.org/10.1017/mah.2025.10073).
I have presented my research at a variety of conferences across different countries. Most recently, this year I presented my research at a conference at Heidelberg University, and presented at the SHAFR (Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations) Conference where I was also selected to be part of the Summer Institute - a group of historians working together to develop and critique each others work. My work has also been presented at: Stanford University, Boston University, University College London and Queen Mary University.
Education
- B.A. University College of London
- M.A. University of Cambridge
Research Interests
Anti-War Activism
US War in Vietnam
Global Histories of the New Left
US Foreign Relations
Global Intellectual History
Dissertation Topic
The Cost of Resistance: American Exiles and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement in Britain, 1964-1976.
