Annamaria Haden is a PhD candidate studying environmental, agricultural, and animal history. She is writing her dissertation on atomic animals in Cold War America. Annamaria’s dissertation examines both real and imagined atomic animals from nuclear test sites, ranches, laboratories, and the realm of popular culture to better understand how Americans used these renowned creatures to work through their anxieties about life in the atomic age. She dedicates each chapter to a particular group of animal actors, including fictional characters such as Bert the Turtle from the Civil Defense Administration’s early 1950s ‘Duck and Cover’ campaign, the Godzilla and Mothra franchises, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Annamaria also foregrounds the animal victims of radiation exposure from nuclear tests which garnered vast media attention, such as the 1945 Trinity Test, 1946 Bikini Atoll tests, the 1950s Nevada Test Site, and the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster. Annamaria is the Department of History’s Writing Tutor, Student Outreach Coordinator, and Social Media Manager.

Research Interests: Animal History, Environmental History, Agricultural History, Nuclear History, Gender History, and Cultural History

Publications:

• Book Review of Critical Connections: The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge from the Dawn of the Atomic Age to the Present by Lee Riedinger, Al Ekkebus, Ray Smith, and William Bugg, in Technology and Culture, Volume 66, Number 1, January 2025, pp. 277-278.
• ‘Radioactive Cows: What Oppenheimer Didn’t Tell You About the Atomic Bomb,’ The Short Rows Blog, Agricultural History Society, 6 November 2023.