Health effects of weapons production in Britain

Hello everyone! I’ve really enjoyed reading the different blogs and projects going on this Summer. I think this is an awesome opportunity for a lot of people here. I know it is for me. I’ve learned so much over this past month and I’m really enjoying this experience. I’ll start with an introduction: I’m Stephanie Whitley and I’m a rising senior studying History and Political Science. My favorite focuses in History are European History, Medieval History and anything related to World War II. For this program, I have been working with Dr. Thorsheim on a project in British History. The specific topic is: “Environmental and health effects of weapons production in Britain over the past 100 years.” At first I was a little overwhelmed with the reading and the amount of research, but after getting used to it, I really enjoy it. The topic is really interesting because it focuses on something that people don’t really think about. Sure, you hear about United States weapons production, the Atom bomb, etc., but you really don’t think about other key countries such as Britain, Germany and even France playing a part in chemical warfare! With this project, I have been able to look through archived notes and documents containing information on weapons production in Britain. It’s interesting to see what was really going on and how they went about keeping these factories secret. While I’m studying Chemical, Atomic and Biological effects, I believe for the project I will be focusing on Chemical warfare and some of the major factories involved. I look forward to finding out more about these factories in the weeks to come.

Overall, this experience has been amazing. I’ve learned how to time manage, organize and structure my research, much to the help of my mentor! I also have enjoyed the many seminars we’ve attended as scholars. I especially liked the graduate school session because I will be looking into graduate school very soon, so that was extremely helpful! I hope everyone’s projects are coming along great and I look forward to hearing what everyone is working on this Summer!

-- Stephanie Whitley, History