In my case, the question should be, “who sparked your interest in the Civil War?” and the answer is Dr Kristen Treen. However, the history of the Civil War has long formed part of primary, secondary, and high-school education in Poland, alongside broader teaching on the pre-Civil War U.S. history, where figures such as Kazimierz Pułaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko (who, over sixty years before the Civil War, advocated for emancipation and used his estate to free and educate African-American slaves), are commemorated for their contributions to the history of the United States.
Also, at the University of South Florida, I had the opportunity, as a member of staff, to enrol in selected courses of interest. I chose a course in U.S. history both to learn locally about the country in which I was living and to examine how U.S. history is taught in the United States, enabling a comparison between European and American narrative approaches. While living in the United States, I travelled across 24 states, exploring my interests in pre-U.S. and U.S. heritage, e.g., Navajo Nation culture, Amish communities, Ancestral Puebloan Cliff Dwellings, Chaco, and Mississippian archaeological cultures, as well as blues and jazz festivals, e.g., in Memphis, New Orleans or St Louis.
