Category Archives: Events and Conferences

Symposium: After the Great War. Challenges for Europe

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European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, Bucharest 2018
European Remembrance: 7th International Symposium of European Institutions dealing with 20th Century History

After the Great War. Challenges for Europe.

The seventh European Remembrance Symposium will take place in the centennial year marking the end of the First World War. As citizens of Central and East-Central Europe, we do not wish to be driven by anniversaries or jubilees. Yet, we also cannot ignore the seminar year 1918. The year 1918 and subsequent turbulent years marked a period of empire breakups, wars, revolutions and border delineation. They shaped Europe as we know it. Consequently, it is worth summarising historians’ newest findings on the period in question as well debating the image of that time in our memory knowing that it ranges from a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment to that of pain and defeat.

The century in question, however, makes us not just contemplate the past. It is a fitting platform for reflection on the present and for forecasts of the future. In this context, two issues seem of particular importance: national sovereignty and peace keeping. After the First World War, Europe experienced – over a short period of time – the creation of many new or renewed sovereign states. They all still exist today, yet sovereignty has changed considerably over the last century. Some experts now speak of its twilight or even possible end. This is a topic definitely worth discussing. Equally interesting and pertinent is the issue of tracking the evolution of ways in which peace has been made over the last one hundred years. In today’s Europe and world, we have been enriched by the experience of the 1919-1920 Paris peace conference as well the shift from war to peace in 1945-1947. At the same time, we live in times when international armed conflicts have been and still are steadily present. Yet, wars are rarely declared and peace is hardly ever established by means of a single act of international law, but forged through a tedious peace process marked by twists and turns. Why have the phenomena of war and peace lost their analytical sharpness? How is good peace made? Can peace be bad or defective and, if so, how do we deal with it? These are questions worth discussing at our Symposium.

The organisers of the Symposium wish to open the discussion on the above issues and invite experts in various areas of life and science. In looking back at such intensive, tragic and sublime as well as joyful and depressing experiences of the 1918-2018 century they can try to diagnose contemporary Europe and forecast its future.

Programme here
Registration here
Further information here

WW1 Talk: “Uncertain at Present for Women But May Increase”, 19 April, 18.00

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EVENING TALK at the MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE

“Uncertain at Present for Women But May Increase”
Thursday 19 April, 6pm

Dr Elizabeth Bruton (Science Museum, London) reveals the little-known history of female wireless telegraphists in World War One and their fight for opportunities to contribute to the war effort alongside their male colleagues.

Please book your free ticket through the Museum’s Eventbrite page at www.bit.ly/mhs-events.

 

Conference: Reflections on the Commemoration of the First World War

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22-23 November 2018 at Tūranga (Central Library) on the corner of Gloucester Street and Colombo Street, Christchurch.

As we approach the end of the centenary of World War One, it is timely to consider the ways in which this conflict has been commemorated. Galleries, libraries, archives and museums around New Zealand and the world have explored old and new narratives of the war and presented these in exhibitions, public programmes and research. Many of these interpretations have been the result of collaborations that have joined repositories with academia, other institutions and the community. This conference invites museum professionals, historians, librarians, academics, students, film makers, artists, writers, researchers, government sector contributors and others to reflect on the commemoration of the war.

Registration is now open. To register click here.

$280 Early Bird Registration (available until 1 August 2018)
$320 Full Registration
$110 Student Registrations (must be currently enrolled in an accredited tertiary institution to qualify) +15% GST = $126.50

A publication featuring a selection of papers from the conference will be produced following the conference.

You can contact the conference committee at ReflectionsWWi2018@gmail.com. An alphabetical listing of all the presentation abstracts is available here.

Keynote speakers:
Dr. Tim Cook, C.M. (Historian, Canadian War Museum)
Entrenched Culture: Soldiers’ Culture in the Aftermath of the First World War

Professor Joy Damousi (Professor of History, University of Melbourne)
Blood, Bodies and Bones: Remembering Violence of the First World War in the 21st century

Dr. Santanu Das (literary and cultural historian, King’s College London)
The Colours of Memory: the racial politics of the centennial commemoration

Further information on conference website.

First World War Study Day: ‘Stories, Myths and Legends of the War’, 5 May 2018, Wolverhampton

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The University of Wolverhampton, First World War Research Group, would like to invite you to a Study Day entitled ‘Stories, Myths and Legends of the War’ on 5th May 2018.

Please see here for the programme: First World War Research Group Study Day 5 May 2018 Programme
and the joining instructions for the Study Day: Joining Instructions for Study Day 5th May 2018 External

The cost of the Study Day is £20.00.

Details of registration and payment can be found in the programme. This can now be done online through the internet link, or alternatively you may contact Sue Holden via email to make arrangements to pay by cheque.

Please contact Sue Holden if you require any further advice or information.

Conference: Costs of War – Impact, Meaning and Perceptions

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Please join us in Oxford for this one-day conference exploring how the costs of war have been defined by policymakers, combatants, and societies, as well as by scholars and commentators. The papers will reflect comparatively on definitions of cost, as well as examining the impact, meaning and perception of costs in human, social, political, financial, economic, environmental, technological, moral and symbolic terms.

In 1967, Pentagon comptroller Robert N. Anthony, stated before a Senate hearing on the economic impact of the Vietnam War, that ‘we do not have a cost accounting system…I think [that] everyone agrees that one does not set up a cost accounting system for a war’. Recent US Congressional reports on the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts have also failed to define what constitutes war ‘costs’. This problem has long historical roots. The development of modern capitalism transformed notions of value, encouraging efforts at quantification, especially in monetary terms. Contrary to Anthony’s assertion, early modern states already attempted to calculate war costs in financial terms, not least because central government expenditure was largely consumed by paying for current conflicts and servicing the debts incurred in previous ones. The changed relationship between state and society during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the transformation of warfare, and the evolution of soldiering increased awareness of human costs, eventually marked most graphically in the erection of memorials to war dead. The emergence of new forms of social history in the mid-twentieth century encouraged greater efforts to consider war’s economic and medical impacts, but discussions have remained largely dominated by quantitative approaches, such as the well-known ‘Correlates of War’ database. The cultural and linguistic ‘turn’ of the 1990s challenged this by suggesting that costs are socially and politically constructed, contingent on circumstances, rather than timeless, universal categories.

Please see here for a full conference programme and registration information.

The event will take place in the Wharton Room, All Souls College, Oxford, and is sponsored by the OxPo exchange, the Oxford Centre for European History and the Center for History at Sciences Po, with the support of All Souls College. Papers will be around 20 minutes and the day will conclude with a roundtable discussion led by invited panelists.

Conference: Captivity in War: a Global Perspective

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International Conference at the University of Bern, Switzerland, organised by the Military Academy at ETH Zurich
23/24 March 2018, University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 49,CH- 3012 Bern, Switzerland, Room F-121

Organised by Tamara Braun and Marcel Berni

This conference will explore various issues relating to captivity in war in the 19th and 20th centuries. In recent years, the study of prisoners of war has increasingly attracted scholarly attention. However, it remains a neglected topic when it comes to research on wars, which often focuses either on the conduct of war itself or on the home front, with prisoners of war fitting in neither of those categories. The aim of the conference is to bring together academics currently working on various aspects of captivity in war during the 19th and 20th centuries, and to discuss and explain how captivity in war varied and evolved during this period.

The conference is open to all and free of charge. If you would like to attend, please E-Mail tamara.braun@vtg.admin.ch.

23 March 2018
09:30 Opening Remarks: Captivity in War: a Global Perspective (Organisers)

09:45 Keynote: German and Austrian War Prisoners in America, 1942-1946 (Arnold Krammer, Texas A&M University)

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:30 Panel 1: Captivity, Law, and Supranational Institutions (Chair: Alexander Krethlow)

Captivity, Ransoming and the Scramble for Africa in the Short 19th Century in West Africa (Roy Doron, Winston-Salem State University)

Imagining or Reflecting War? The Development of International Law Protecting Civilian and Military Captives as well as Refugees From and In Captivity in the Age of Two World Wars, 1899-1951 (Daniel Marc Segesser, University of Bern)

Fighting for Respect and Dignity in the Darkest of Times: The Role of Honour-Based Practices in POW Regimes during the First World War (Jasper Heinzen, University of York)

Captivity in Ottoman Lands: Humanitarian Aid of Ottoman Red Crescent Society during First World War (Ceren Aygül, Johannes Gutenberg-University / IEG-Mainz)

12:30-13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-15:15 Panel 2: Confinement Conditions and Camp Life (Chair: Tanja Bührer)

Spaces of Confinement, Spaces of Resistance: Prisoners of War in Britain, 1793-1815 (Anna McKay, University of Leicester)

Conflicting Orders: Class, Race and Rank as Categories of Internment in German East Africa, 1914-1919 (Daniel Steinbach, University of Exeter)

Same-Sex Desire in Captivity: German POWs in the United States, 1942-1946 (Matthias Reiss, University of Exeter)

The Internment of 15,000 Jews in the Hongkew Designated Area of Shanghai from 1943 to 1945 (Meron Medzini, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

15:15-15:45 Break

15:45-17:00 Panel 3: Labour and Interactions with Locals (Chair: Stig Förster)

Prisoners of War, Labour and Race in the Eastern Caribbean during the Revolutionary Wars: 1794–1810 (Flavio Eichmann, University of Bern)

Prisoners of the Chaco: Bolivians Laboring in Captivity for a Better Future (Robert Niebuhr, Arizona State University)

19:00 Conference Dinner

24 March 2018
09:30-10:30 Keynote: The Organization and Development of the Wehrmacht’s Prisoner of War System and the Treatment of different Prisoner of War Groups (Rüdiger Overmans, Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, retired)

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:15 Panel 4: Violence in Captivity (Chair: Michael Olsansky)

The Treatment of War Prisoners in Greece during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 (Panagiotis Delis, Simon Fraser University)

A War Without Hate? The Afrikakorps, the Italian Army, and the Ill-Treatment and Murder of Allied POWs during the Desert War (Patrick Bernhard, University of Oslo)

Violence against Prisoners of War in the Asia-Pacific War: The Deterioration of Japanese Attitudes in a Global Perspective (Rotem Kowner, University of Haifa)

Captivity and Gender: Women Prisoners of Israel’s War of Independence as a Case Study (Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman, Bar-Ilan University)

12:15-13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-15:00 Panel 5: Release, Reintegration and Remembrance (Chair: Reinhard Nachtigal)

“Heraus mit unseren Gefangenen!” The German Homefront & Prisoner of War Repatriation, 1918-1919 (Brian K. Feltman, Georgia Southern University)

The East European “Lost Generation” Between War and Revolution: Release and Reintegration of Austro-Hungarian POWs (Olga Zaslavskaya, Central European University)

Everyday Humanitarianism. The ICRC and the Exchange of Former POWs in the Camp of Narva (1920-1922) (Francesca Piana, Pierre du Bois Foundation)

100.000 Pakistani POWs as Bargaining Chip: 1971-1974 (Amit Das Gupta, Universität der Bundeswehr)

15:00-15:15 Break

15:15-16:00 End of Conference Discussion

‘Lest We Forget’: First World War digitization event, Our Lady’s Abingdon Senior School, 9 March, 13.00-16.00

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This project invites local schools, groups, and organizations from across the UK to hold their own ‘Digital Collection Days’. At these events, members of the local community are invited to bring in their Great War stories, photographs, medals, diaries, and letters. These vital objects and memories are then documented and photographed so that they can be saved for future generations. The collected stories and objects are then uploaded to a free-to-use Oxford University database, where they will be freely accessible to all members of the public to discover, research, and learn.

Our next event that is open to the public is on 9th March at Our Lady’s Abingdon Senior School from 1:00 – 4:00pm.

A brief Introductory Guide on what a ‘Digital Collection Day’ is/looks like is available on our website (https://lwf.web.ox.ac.uk/home)
You can also read about a recent, and highly successful, Digital Collection Day that was held at a local Oxford school here:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/15670737.Cigarette_case_which_saved_man__39_s_life_in_First_World_War_discovered_at_school/

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15581379.School_preserves_First_World_War_memories_for_ever_in_mass_digital_project/

For more information, or to get involved, you can get in touch with the Lest We Forget team at: ww1collections@it.ox.ac.uk