Paraskevi Kyrias, Albania, and the US at the Paris Peace Conference | Nevila Pahumi

E490 | In 1919, Paraskevi Kyrias went to Paris to advocate for Albanian independence. As a woman in the overwhelmingly masculine space of international diplomacy, she faced sexism and unwanted romantic overtures. Nevertheless, she called on her connections within a global Protestant community, her life in diaspora in the United States, and her experiences at the elite Constantinople Girls' School to play a unique role in the Albanian campaign for independence after World War I. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Nevila Pahumi about Kyrias' story, her leadership of the early Albanian women's movement, and the diary of her experiences in Paris she left behind. We also trace the history of this remarkable woman after 1919, as she and her family were repudiated by a secularizing Albanian state determined to excise Protestant activism from their national history--until she was once again remade as a feminist icon in the last years of her life. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2021/01/pahumi.html Nevila Pahumi works on the history of women's education and their emergence in the public sphere in the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman Balkans. She graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a PhD in History in 2016, and between 2016-2018 she held the Alexander Nash Fellowship in Albanian Studies at UCL's School of Slavonic and Southeast European Studies. She has published two-dissertation related articles in the Journal of Modern Greek Studies and CLIO and taught a range of topics on Eastern Europe including women, gender, and sexuality after socialism. Her research and writing have been generously supported by an IIE Fulbright Fellowship, the Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship, as well as a combination of research and writing grants from the University of Michigan's Weiser Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East Eurasian Studies, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and the Rackham Graduate School. Susanna Ferguson is Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at Smith College. She writes and teaches on the history of gender, sexuality, and political thought in the modern Arab world. CREDITS Episode No. 490 Release Date: 21 January 2021 Recording Location: Charlottesville, VA / Northampton, MA Sound production by Susanna Ferguson and Chris Gratien Music: "Chuperlika," Music of the Balkans, Gogofski; Eduardo Vandaa - VALSES DE PARIS; Henry King and his Hotel Pierre Orch - April in Paris; Marko Melkon and Nick Doneff - Geozlerinden Bellidir Special thanks to Sam Dolbee Images and bibliography courtesy of Nevila Pahumi available at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2021/01/pahumi.html