Emily Grenon

DPhil Research Topic

“The Street of Nations, the Home of Empires: Nationalism and Imperialism in Exhibitions, 1871-1937” 

Supervisor: Abigail Green

My research focuses on expressions of national and imperial identity and practice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Western Europe. Using exhibitions and fairs as a lens, I consider the relationship between empire and nation, as well as the connections between different imperialisms. My current focus is on Britain and France, where I am interested in how these themes were presented for local, imperial, and international audiences.

This work builds on my SSHRC Graduate Scholarship Masters-funded master's thesis, “Staging Alliance: Entente Diplomatic Relations on the Fairground Before the First World War," which received the Janet Hyer Essay Prize. In this thesis, I explored how performances of affinity between imperial and national identities were seen as tools to build peace and alliance. 

I am fortunate to conduct my research as a Clarendon Scholar with the support of the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and the Oxford-Aidan Jenkins Graduate Scholarship.