Students Shine During Pandemic-Era Watt Award By Aaron B. Retish
Once again, the annual Watt Essay Award received a record number of submissions from around the world. The jury was especially impressed by the high quality of nearly all the submissions this year. Considering that these students produced this inspiring work during a pandemic as their schools or universities were moving to remote learning makes the group of students who submitted essays that much more outstanding.
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here were three recipients at the pre-collegiate level. Hugh Goffinet, of James I. O’Neill High School in Highland Falls, New York explored the fascinating life of the Algerian Rabah Oussidhoum, who joined the French Army, moved to France and then fought and died for the liberation of Spain from the Fascists in his essay. Goffinet argues that Oussidhoum saw his efforts in Spain as part of a larger fight of North Africans against colonial oppression. Michelle Jennings of Apex Friendship High School in North Carolina submitted a moving story, “The Blood of Madrid,” about a young soldier lost on the streets of Madrid during the siege. A student at Marple Sixth Form College in Stockport, UK, James Mair produced an exceptional essay, “The Process of Radicalisation,” a study of the British Battalion of the International Brigade that draws on memoirs of the brigadiers and reveals the diverse political views within the Battalion.
convincingly shows how the press took a special interest in the Spanish Civil War and had a more conservative stance toward the Spanish Republic than Mexico and criticized the Mexican government for supporting the Republic. Carlos is a two-time winner of the award, having also received the Watt in 2015 as an undergraduate.
We have not seen such high numbers of submissions for the collegiate and graduate awards before. Emmaline Bennett, a student at Columbia University, wowed the jury with her exquisitely argued essay “Cities of Defeat: Spanish Civil War Refugees and the French Concentration Camps of 1939.” Based on deep research in the Spanish archives, Bennet’s essay examines the lives of Spanish internees and how their experiences were tied to French politics of exclusion.
Pre-collegiate awards
The jury read chapters from fifteen exceptionally strong dissertations, a reminder that we are in the midst of a new wave of innovative scholarship on Spanish Civil War by a new generation of students that is highlighting the global significance of the conflict. Carlos Nava of Southern Methodist University received the award for his chapter “The MexicanAmerican Press and the Spanish Civil War,” which examines an overlooked Mexican-exile press in the United States. Nava
The jury for the Watt award was comprised of Angela Giral (Columbia University), Joshua Goode (Claremont Graduate University), Gina Herrmann (University of Oregon), Jo Labanyi (New York University) and Aaron Retish (Wayne State University). The George Watt Memorial Essay award honors the memory of Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran George Watt (1914-1994), a social worker, writer, and lifelong activist central to the creation of ALBA.
Hugh Goffinet This essay covers the life and service of Rabah Oussidhoum, an Algerian battalion commander who was killed in action in Miraflores, Spain. He served in Spain to prove to the world that not all North Africans were serving the forces of Fascism (a nod to the Moroccan Regulares) and that many were ready, willing and able to fight back and defend Spanish Democracy. Not only was he a staunch anti-fascist, but he was also a staunch anti-imperialist. Oussidhoum was an early member of the Algerian Communist Party and a staunch believer in Algerian independence, even going as far as attempting to defect to the forces of Abd El-Krim as a young NCO in the French Army during the Rif War.
December 2020 THE VOLUNTEER 9
