Katrina Ponti
Virtuous Emulations of Liberty
Under Contract, University of Virginia Press
Using over 30 travel diaries from a dozen archives in over four countries, this project studies how American citizen diplomats in the early republic created approaches to help shape a global environment favorable to U.S. interests and how they created a previously unseen type of democratic diplomacy at the beginning of the long nineteenth century. I argue that American citizen diplomats disseminated information about the society and culture of the United States; secured new financial and economic opportunities; and created social and political networks around the world. To understand the role of the citizen diplomat, I believe, is to understand a transitive moment in global diplomacy throughout the American Revolution and before the Congress of Vienna, which routinized diplomatic practices between nations. It is also to understand the shift in the relationship between governments and their citizens abroad, as well as the redefinition of diplomatic service in the post-colonial Age of Revolutions.
Manifest Embassy
This digital and public history initiative stems from the dataset generated by my Virtuous Emulations research. It experiments with data analysis, AI, and problem-based modeling to seek new techniques to bridge the gap between academic history and the role of democracy in foreign affairs. Manifest Embassy's guiding question asks: how did the U.S. balance two seemingly contradictory concepts of democratic openness and national security? Through the lens of American embassies, this research also considers how these national buildings and their inhabitants confronted foreign policy challenges throughout U.S. history. By blending historical inquiry with qualitative analysis and technology, this project offers an immersive approach to studying the intersection of diplomacy, state capacity, and power.