Filson Fellowship
Susanna Delfino
By Ashley Graves
Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator
 |
About |
University of Genoa Associate Professor
of History and Institutions of the Americas,
Susanna Delfino is the most recent recipient
of a Breaux Fellowship offered by The Filson
Historical Society. Her research on “Antebellum
Kentucky and its transformation” presented
her with an in-depth look at the Bullitt
Family Papers, the Bodley Family Papers,
Allison, Young, Ewing Papers, the Grigsby
collection and many more papers within the
Filson’s collections. 
Her research proposal on “Women and the transformation of antebellum Kentucky society” is a part of a larger project covering several southern states. It aims at documenting the development of a gender-conscious outlook on part of the antebellum southern women following their increasing participation in the market economy and the promising industrial system. Her research also presents vast implications toward a better understanding of the roots of southern nationalism on the eve of the Civil War.
Starting from the 1970s, the history of the antebellum South had been the object of a deep revision that has completely changed our understanding of its economy and society. This reappraisal of the history of the Old South has involved white women in important ways, unveiling the complexity and diversity of female worlds. The opportunities offered them by the expansion of the market economy allowed many southern women to acquire a modicum of personal autonomy and relative independence, influencing traditional gender relations within the family and developing a degree of consciousness about their own position within southern society. Participation in the labor market allowed southern white women to acquire some public visibility and consideration among their male colleagues.
With her findings, Delfino plans to write an article on her research done at The Filson. She will include her findings on Kentucky in a larger project that will focus on southern women in an economic, modern context.
After her time at The Filson, Delfino will travel to the University of Oregon to lecture and conduct comparative research on the U.S. and Italian South.
Over the past 15 years, Delfino has contributed to the founding of the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies at the University of Genoa and has worked toward re-evaluation of the South in the writing of American history. She has a deep involvement in scholarly and professional activities in the United States. Delfino is the director of a cooperative exchange program between the University of Genoa and the University of Tennessee, the founder and now first vice-president of the Southern Industrialization Project and is the editor of the book series “New Directions in the History of the Southern Economy and Society.”
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