"Forced Labor in the Maghreb, 1940-1943"
Professional Background
Emily Dabney is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Clark University (USA). She received a B.A. in history and French from Georgia Southern University. For her Sosland Foundation Fellowship, Ms. Dabney conducted research for her dissertation project, “Forced Labor in the Maghreb, 1940-1943.”
Ms. Dabney is the author of three publications: “Robert Satloff: In Search of an Arab Schindler” in Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Year End Activities Report (2009), “Shoghaken Ensemble: Armenia’s Folk Music and Dance” co-authored with Adara Goldberg in Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Year End Activities Report (2008), and “Debórah Dwork: The Terezín Album of Mariánka Zadikow” in Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Year End Activities Report (2008). She is the recipient of a number of fellowships, awards and scholarships, including a research grant from the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (2010-2011), the Richard M. Cohen, M.D. Doctoral Fellowship from the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2007-2011), and an Undergraduate Research Grant from Georgia Southern University (2006). Ms. Dabney has language skills in French, German and Arabic.
Fellowship Research
Ms. Dabney used her time at the Center to explore the wartime experience of Jewish légionnaires in North Africa. Her work addressed the institutionalized abuse and terror deployed by the French in the Maghreb during World War II. Ms. Dabney took a transnational perspective to examine the discriminatory practices of the collaborationist Vichy regime, exposing aspects of its anti-Semitic policy. By exploring forced labor camps in the Maghreb through this lens, she sought to uncover and reconstruct the systems in which Jews were enslaved. Ms. Dabney utilized the Museum’s extensive archival collections to complete her research.
Ms. Dabney was in residence at the Mandel Center from June 1 to September 9, 2011.