Dr. Cynthia Wachtell, research associate professor of American studies and director of the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program at , presented a paper at a conference, “Artistic Expressions and the Great War: A Hundred Years On,” organized by the Hofstra Cultural Center and Department of History and held at Hofstra University from Nov. 7-9, 2018.
The paper, “Artistic Expression and Suppression: Ellen N. Motte and the Backwash of War,” was part of a panel discussion on “Writing and Performing War,” moderated by Dr. Cindy Rosenthal of the Department of Drama and Dance at Hofstra University.
Ellen Newbold La Motte, born in 1873, was a trained nurse, public health advocate and administrator, suffragette, journalist, anarchist, expatriate in Gertrude Stein’s Paris circle, lesbian and war nurse. The Backwash of War: The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse was a short story collection about her experiences in World War I. Dr. Wachtell will be publishing a book in February 2019 on La Motte.