Date of Award

2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

History

Abstract

"Peace Bodies: Women, Encampments, and the Struggle against Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War, 1972-1992" examines the global 1980s women's peace camping movement. This study aims to explore and comprehend peace in new ways. It is specifically targeted to define peace campers' fundamental peace principles and to discover how they embodied them. This research interrogates the ways in which the peace camping movement influenced the political and cultural developments that led to nuclear de-escalation in the final years of the Cold War. The sources for this research include women's peace camp archival records, film footage and photographs, interviews, and oral histories which will be utilized to trace the ways that peace campers enacted their ideology. In addition, this research will investigate military records, periodicals, and television and radio news sources to examine the ways in which women's peace camping actions were assessed and received. Exploring the global 1980s women's peace camping movement reveals a foundational shift in peace politics. The campers demonstrated new “peace bodies” which reflected a uniquely feminist vision of the world. Their bodily transformation was reflected in their activist intentions, their material camping experiences, and their collective performative actions, all of which represented a sharp break both from their own past experiences as well as the prevailing Cold War mission of the state.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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