Scholarship

For my dissertation, I looked at military spectacles and the performance of nationalism and national identity. These spectacular performances incorporated the practice of marching and military drill. 

In chapter one, I perform a historiographical analysis of western military drill through significant periods of its development. Next, I look at the cultural circumstances of those periods. Specifically, the ideal masculine for that time. I investigate the physicality and affect of drill practice in that period and its alignment with or differentiation from that ideal. 

In chapter two, I explore the militarized myth of the Scottish highlander and its place in the hegemonic Scottish identity. I do this by demonstrating that the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo instills the cultural values of independence and dependence through its performance of that Highland figure. This is all done with drill, of course! 

In chapter three, I argue for the unique position soldiers in Paris' Bastille Day Military Parade have in French commemorative practice and memory. I argue that the use of the soldier body on parade stands as an emblem of the fighters of the revolution. By doing so, the linear temporality of memory is questioned as I recognize the cyclical epistemology of the body embedded in military drill and soldiers on parade. 

Through the writing of chapter one, I was able to compile a history that I believe has never been told. That is the history of precision drill. Prior to my discoveries, scholars only noted that it came about "around after WWII." Look forward to the adaptation of my dissertation into a published book to hear the story!