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Kaete O'Connell

@kaeteoc

Historian of Food & Foreign Relations | #SHAFR Deputy Director | Senior Fellow @ SMU’s Center for Presidential History

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Latest posts by Kaete O'Connell @kaeteoc

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Calling all K-12 History educators! Applications are DUE MARCH 6 for our Summer 2026 Seminar on the Declaration of Independence!
Join us & 100 teachers at SMU in Dallas, all expenses paid.
You can find all application info at www.smu.edu/cph/A250

05.03.2026 02:32 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
The Myrna F. Bernath Book Award The Myrna F. Bernath Book Award is to encourage scholarship by women in U.S. foreign relations history.

Myrna F. Bernath Book Award deadline extended to March 15! SHAFR members apply/nominate books published in 2024/2025 and written by a woman, non-binary, and/or trans scholar in the field. Instructions for submission can be found here: www.shafr.org/myrna-f--ber...

23.02.2026 13:46 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Still time to join us tonight for this event with @renfro.bsky.social! SMU, Dallas Hall, 6pm.

19.02.2026 23:21 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Congratulations @oscarwinberg.bsky.social 🎉👏

17.02.2026 00:22 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1
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Applications are now open for our American History & Civics Summer Seminar for K-12 educators.
Topic: The Declaration of Independence:
Info: Summer 2026, SMU, Dallas, TX!

We welcome applications from educators across the country!

Deadline: March 6
Details & application: smu.edu/cph/A250

13.02.2026 22:27 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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SAVE THE DATE 🇳🇱
#SHAFR2028
cc: @dariofazzi.bsky.social

09.02.2026 13:41 👍 13 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 4
Preview
The 10 Best and 10 Worst U.S. Foreign Policy Decisions For two-and-a-half centuries, the United States has faced a challenging world. Some of its responses have advanced U.S. interests and values. Others have not. We asked members of the Society for Histo...

No. 1 Best? The Marshall Plan.

Just sit with that for a moment.
www.cfr.org/ten-best-ten...

19.01.2026 14:24 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Prizes The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) Prizes.

Don't forget, the deadline for several #SHAFR prizes is February 1!
Click here for more info: www.shafr.org/prizes

18.01.2026 23:12 👍 0 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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SHAFR is pleased to announce the launch of the William Burr Prize in Nuclear History with @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social
Deadline is April 1
More info: www.shafr.org/burr-prize

19.01.2026 13:58 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Food power is real and it’s essential to understanding our current moment

15.01.2026 15:03 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
The 10 Best and 10 Worst U.S. Foreign Policy Decisions For two-and-a-half centuries, the United States has faced a challenging world. Some of its responses have made Americans proud. Others have not. We asked members of the Society for Historians of Ameri...

CFR expert James Lindsay asked hundreds of historians what they considered to be the 10 best and worst foreign policy decisions in U.S. history.

Here is what they said:

13.01.2026 15:13 👍 7 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 2

Working hard to create a forum where we can celebrate our members, share opportunities, and advance forward-thinking scholarship without sacrificing the past. If you have feedback or ideas, please reach out!

15.01.2026 14:51 👍 0 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Come on out tomorrow morning for a great panel on food, power, and policy #AHA26

08.01.2026 15:11 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

That vision shaped how Americans imagined food, security, and global responsibility during and after #WWII. Those ideas are at the heart of my book, Recipe for Democracy, out later this year with UVA Press! #foodhist

06.01.2026 22:44 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

But it's a bizarre painting, aside from the turkey, there's barely any food (celery!?). The emphasis isn't abundance but community. The family matters more than the feast.

06.01.2026 22:44 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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In 1943, Norman Rockwell brought the Four Freedoms to life in a series of covers for the Saturday Evening Post that were later used to sell war bonds. His painting for Freedom from Want, a family gathered for a turkey dinner, became iconic.

06.01.2026 22:44 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Freedom from Want was the most tangible. Material well-being--wages, prices, calories--were proof that democracy could deliver security. Prosperity was safety.

06.01.2026 22:44 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
FDR and the Four Freedoms Speech - FDR Presidential Library & Museum

85 years ago, #FDR introduced the Four Freedoms in his 1941 State of the Union: freedom of speech, of worship, from fear, and from want. It was a vision that defined national security in terms everyday Americans could understand and aspire to.
www.fdrlibrary.org/four-freedoms

06.01.2026 22:44 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Really enjoyed the opportunity to read and think about a different sort of American intervention abroad. Highly recommend Tammy Proctor's Saving Europe. #wwi #foodaid #skystorians

06.01.2026 22:19 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Saving Apartheid | Columbia University Press During the 1980s, as global antiapartheid sentiment grew, an international coalition of far-right activists arose to preserve racial hierarchy in South Afric... | CUP

Thinking about what to put on your reading list to kick off the new year? My book, Saving Apartheid: White Internationalism at the End of the Cold War is officially available for preorder (for release March 2026) wherever books are sold. Beyond excited!

cup.columbia.edu/book/saving-...

03.01.2026 21:46 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1

Join me Friday for a morning chat on hot dogs! Yes, I'm a scholar of US foreign relations. #iykyk #AHA26 #AHS #SHAFR #aghistory #WWII

04.01.2026 17:01 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thank you!!

30.12.2025 19:56 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

REMINDER: The deadline for #SHAFR2026 travel awards is January 1!

The Kinder Institute is offering a special travel award in connection with the nation's semiquincentennial for intl participants.

To learn more and apply visit www.shafr.org/shafr2026

29.12.2025 15:04 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Looking for #skystorians rec’s on the Battle of the Bulge. What book offers the best & most accessible overview? Also looking for candid memoirs/diaries #history #WWII @smh-historians.bsky.social

30.12.2025 12:56 👍 0 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Finally booked my flights for #AHA26, which means I will now publicly advertise that I'll be in Chicago, eating my way through the city, and enjoying all aspects of academic conferencing that I no longer indulge in at #SHAFR cause it's my job.

04.12.2025 00:28 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This year’s #SHAFR conference is in Columbus and, given the John Glenn connection, I’ll be sorely disappointed if there’s no panel on Space, esp since RL Stine’s work doesn’t translate to foreign relations and we can’t have a Goosebumps panel #SHAFR2026

29.11.2025 19:01 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
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🎉 Diplomatic History turns 50 in 2027!
RIAS is hosting a workshop for a special anniversary issue on European perspectives on the U.S.’s global interactions. Read the CFP here: tinyurl.com/mry26zx2
cc: @diplomatichistory.bsky.social

22.11.2025 00:05 👍 8 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
NJ Devils Feature John O'Connell On Military Appreciation Night  #njdevils #military #veteran
NJ Devils Feature John O'Connell On Military Appreciation Night #njdevils #military #veteran YouTube video by New Jersey Devils

Dad was recognized at the Devils game 🙂

youtube.com/shorts/8wCnV...

11.11.2025 04:10 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Proposals for #SHAFR2026 are due December 1!

www.shafr.org/shafr2026

10.11.2025 18:31 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1

Who wouldn’t be excited?!

27.10.2025 21:17 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0