Chelsea Kiefer
About Chelsea
Year: Senior
Major: History
Hometown: Raleigh, NC
Faculty Mentor: Hollie Marquess
Research Recognition: 2024 Lynn Haggard Undergraduate Library Research Award
Describe Your Research
My final research paper was called "Outside of Motherhood: Childless Women in America 1900-1950". To win this award for my research on childless women is especially meaningful for me, as this work is personal to my life and stereotypes put on women, still, every day, in this country and around the world. It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to share this incredibly important work - which I hope to have done a bit of justice - with more people due to the attention this award will bring to it.
What are your future career goals?
My future career goals are to finish my MA in Public History at FHSU andthen work in a museum or at a historic site to spread my love of history with the public and to connect communities with their pasts. I am finishing a two-semester internship with the North Carolina Museum ofHistory and transitioning to a Summer 2024 internship with Duke Homestead Historic Site and a part-time job with West Point on the Eno Historic Park.
Why should other students get involved in research?
Undergrad research is incredibly important to growing in your field andsetting a foundation to build upon in graduate school or your future career. Now, as undergrads, is the time to learn the basics, makemistakes, get feedback, and practice as much as you can with the close guidance of your professors. The more you do now - the better prepared you will be later! Utilize all of the tools available to you - like Forsyth Library - and you will succeed.
Chelsea's work was both creative and original. She utilized a great deal of primary source materials on a subject that is not often covered. Chelsea worked her primary source material in creatively, including images that poked fun at childless women in the era and demonstrate the backlash faced by these women.
