Emmanuel Destenay (FRHistS FHEA)

Emmanuel received his PhD in Contemporary History from Sorbonne University in 2014. His doctoral research was funded by the Institute for Strategic Research of the French Ministry of Defense and examined the experiences of demobilization of Irish veterans of the First World War. His thesis received the 2015 PhD Prize from the Irish Foundation of France. He held Research Fellowships at Oxford University (2011-2012), Stanford University (2015), and University College Dublin (2016-2019).

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a fully-qualified teacher in English, French and History. He has received several awards from professional achievements (2015, 2016) and a Students’ Teaching Award (2015) from Exeter University.

Emmanuel has written several articles in international refereed journals. His most recent articles appeared in the Journal for British Studies, Modern American History and Rural History. Economy, Society, Culture.

His first monograph entitled Shadows from the Trenches. Veterans of the Great War and the Irish Revolution (1918-1923) was published by University College Dublin Press (2021). Thanks to this first single-authored book, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) in 2021 and rewarded with a Honorable mention (James S. Donnelly, Sr., Prize for Books in Humanities and Social Sciences) at the annual American Conference for Irish Studies in 2022. His second monograph Divergent Destinies. Conscription, US Intervention and the Transformation of Ireland (1914-1918) appeared in 2022 with Bloomsbury Academic.

His third monograph America’s French Orphans: Mobilization, Humanitarianism, and the Protection of France, 1914-1921 tracks the mobilization of American men, women, and children in adopting and rescuing French orphans during and in the aftermath of World War One. It was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.

Uncle Sam’s Little Soldiers, his forthcoming book, will be published in 2026 by Cambridge University Press. It sheds light on the unparalleled contribution American children made through World War I to protect the nation, and analyzes why adults campaigned tirelessly for children’s hearts, minds, and energies during wartime.

He has now embarked on two new projects.

In 2025, Emmanuel was elected social sciences representative for the American Conference for Irish Studies and will chair the committee that annually awards the James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for Books on History and Social Sciences.

Emmanuel has been appointed to serve on the Committee on Academic Freedom for the Organization of American Historians (OAH). Emmanuel is also responsible for the project Decompartmentalizing History (DECOMPHIST), which was recently selected under the AHA’s Community Action and Resource Exchange (CARE) program. It seeks to foster collaboration between K-12 educations and academics at state and federal levels and engage K-12 pupils in history projects led by academics.