Jess Malitoris Wins Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grant

Jess Malitoris received the Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grant from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. This grant is intended to assist dissertation research by students of American foreign relations.

Malitoris’ dissertation project has a working title of "Negotiating Consent: Gender, Race, and Consent for Marriage in the United Nations, 1947-1967." Focusing on the UN Convention on Consent for Marriage, Age of Marriage, and Registration of Marriages (drafted by the UN Commission on the Status of Women and entering into force in 1964), she seeks to understand how and why ideas of family and consent changed (or didn't) in the US as a result of this document. Encapsulating elements of the politics of the Cold War, development, decolonization, and civil rights, this Convention allows her to tie women's rights to broader conversations. She uses records from women's organizations, personal papers of women activists and diplomats, and documents from the State Department and the Women's Bureau. This grant will largely help her to access these government documents.