Joseph Rix
PhD Student
Research Degree Students
email: rixj1_17@uni.worc.ac.uk
Joseph is a full-time PhD student from Shropshire studying American History at the University of Worcester.
His main research interest is the period known as the “Sixties”, broadly conceived as the period between 1955-1973. His doctoral thesis focuses on the GI Movement – the activism of people in the US military against the war in Vietnam – principally at Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington, USA and is titled: ‘‘Provocative People’: The Lewis-McChord Free Press, GI Social and Political Consciousness During the Vietnam War’.
This study intersects with the broad milieu of “Sixties”’ activism and thus details GIs’ reactions to, and engagement with, political, social, racial, and gender issues in the Vietnam War era. Likewise, the thesis details the effect that the changing landscape of the Left during the late 1960s and early ‘70s had on malcontent servicepeople and explores how GIs interacted with Marxist politics and the New Communist Movement during this period.
His Director of Studies is Dr Wendy Toon and his supervisor is Dr Paddy McNally.
Research and Academic Dissemination
- Co-organiser academic conference, University of Worcester, titled: ‘Pro- and Anti-War Voices’ (with Dr Toon). Academics from across the United Kingdom and Europe gave papers on various pro- and anti-war attitudes to conflicts in which the United States has been involved. (November 2023)
- Conference paper, (at above), titled: ‘Servants of War: GI Opposition to the Vietnam War in the Pacific Northwest, 1970-1973’.
- Co-curator public facing exhibition, The Hive, Worcester, titled: ‘Pro- and Anti-War Voices’ (with Dr Toon). (November 2023)
- Exhibition boards, (at above), titled: ‘The GI Movement’ and ‘Vietnam GI Underground Cartoons’.
- Research trip, Seattle, Washington, USA to interview seven former-GIs involved in anti-war activism on Lewis and McChord. Also conducted research in the University of Washington’s Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection; attended the ‘G.I. Resistance in the Pacific Northwest’ symposium at the University of Washington, and the ‘G.I. Resistance in the Pacific Northwest’ at the University of Puget Sound. (October 2022)
- Conference paper, University of Worcester’s Postgraduate Conference, titled: ‘The GI Movement: GI Political and Social Consciousness During the Vietnam War’. (June 2022)
Awards and Prizes
- British Association for American Studies Development Fund (2023, in collaboration with Dr Toon)
Teaching Experience
Joseph has also taught on the following subjects and modules at the University of Worcester:
- ‘Dissertation Dos and Don’ts: A Student Perspective’, History Dissertation. (2022-2024)
- ‘The GI Movement’, The American Century. (2023-2025)
- ‘The History of Vietnam, 1800-1975’, Making of the Modern World. (2022-2023)
Qualifications
- MA History of Warfare, 2021, University of Birmingham
- BA (Hons) History, 2020, University of Worcester